Up In Flames
by 1980s-popito
Summary: "I can't remember who met who first, or who fell in love with who first. All I can remember is the seven of us always together." (rated T just in case, cause let's think about this, it's "St Elmo's Fire" and we all know how appropriate that movie is)
1. Introduction Quotes

_**Jules**_

"You break my heart… then again, you break everyone's heart.

-/-/-

 _ **Billy and Wendy**_

"You're really going huh?"

"So, uh… are you still a virgin?"

"Why is my sexual status so important to you?"

-/-/-

 _ **Leslie**_

"Sex isn't love."

-/-/-

 _ **Kevin and Kirby**_

"It's true love my friend."

"Love, love… you know what love is? Love is an illusion created by lawyer types like yourself to perpetuate another illusion called marriage to create the reality of divorce and then the illusionary need for divorce."

-/-/-

 _ **Kevin and Kirby**_

"I always thought we'd be friends forever."

"Yeah, well forever got a lot shorter all of a sudden."

-/-/-

 _ **Leslie**_

"I just wish everything could be like it used to be! All of us friends."

-/-/-

 _ **Kevin and Alec**_

"Marriage is a concept invented by people who were lucky enough to make it to twenty without being eaten by dinosaurs. Marriage is obsolete."

"Dinosaurs are obsolete. Marriage is still around."

-/-/-

 _ **Leslie and Alec**_

"You cannot have the Pretenders' first album. That's mine."

"I bought it."

"You did not! You can have all the Billy Joel's… except the stranger."

"I'm taking Thriller and Mahler's ninth."

"Kevin is so fond of Mahler."

"I moved in with Jules."

"Oh how nice, roomies again… no Springsteen is leaving this house! You can have all the Carly Simon's."

"You got me those for Valentine's Day. Remember when there were still Valentine's around here?"

"You ran out on this relationship. You take the consequences."

"I didn't run out on anything. You ran out."

-/-/-

 _ **Jules and Kevin**_

"Don't you enjoy anything anymore? Like girls?"

"I enjoy being afraid of Russia. It's a harmless fear, but it makes America feel better. Russia gets an inflated sense of national worth from our paranoia. How's that?"

-/-/-

 _ **Wendy and Billy**_

"Do you ever feel like you're not accomplishing anything at all?"

"I think I'm in touch with that emotion."

-/-/-

 _ **Kirby**_

"There are several quintessential moments in a man's life: losing his virginity, getting married, becoming a father, and having the right girl smile at you."

-/-/-

 _ **Kevin and Leslie**_

"Well, you're all I think about."

"Me?"

"And I think the reason I'm not interested in other women and why I haven't had sex in so long is because I'm desperately, completely in love with you."

-/-/-

 _ **Kevin and Kirby**_

"You are just pissed off and bitter because you have not had sex in how long? What is it, a year? Maybe two? Refresh my memory please, Kevin. Haven't you heard of the sexual revolution?"

"Who won, huh? Nobody. It used to be sex was the only free thing. No longer. Alimony, palimony, it's all financial. Love is an illusion."

"It's the only illusion that counts my friend."

"Says who?"

"Anyone who's been in love."

"Love sucks."

"So does your attitude."

-/-/-

 _ **Jules and Wendy**_

"I thought you were taking steps to phase out everything that wasn't working in your life."

"That doesn't leave much."

-/-/-

 _ **Wendy**_

"Oh, well, I wouldn't say my father's trying to bribe me but he did offer me a Chrysler Lebaron convertible if I got engaged to Howie."

-/-/-

 _ **Kevin and Alec**_

"Did you tell Leslie about my screwing around?"

"No."

"I believe you, Kevin. I want you to know that I believe you and I'm sorry I hit you… Kevin, I don't think, that I am ever going to be able to get Leslie back…"

-/-/-

 _ **Wendy and Jules**_

"We're really worried about this affair with your boss."

"I don't know why you're both so worried… so, I bop him for a couple of years, get his job when he gets his hands caught in the vault, become a legend, do a black mink ad, retire in utter disgrace, then write a best seller and be a fabulous host on my own talk show."

-/-/-

 _ **Alec and Billy**_

"You're being arrested for drunk driving."

"Drunk definitely. I don't know if you could call it driving."

-/-/-

 _ **Leslie**_

"Men… can't live with 'em, can't shoot 'em."

-/-/-

 _ **Billy**_

"Looks pretty outta hand up there."

-/-/-

 _ **Kevin**_

"You know Jules, there is the brink of insanity and then there is the abyss, which you have obviously fallen into!"

-/-/-

 _ **Wendy**_

"No diet works. The only way to lose weight in the thighs is amputation."

-/-/-

 _ **Billy**_

"So you lost your job? I've lost twenty of them since graduation. Plus a wife and kid. And, in a new development this morning, a handful of hair in the shower drain."

-/-/-

 _ **Jules**_

"I never thought I'd be so tired at twenty-two. I just don't even know who to be anymore."

-/-/-

 _ **Kevin**_

"Never trust a women who says she isn't angry."

-/-/-

 _ **Billy**_

"Don't let her go."

-/-/-

 _ **Dale Bieberman**_

"I don't really know you that well but you seem like a fine person. And I want you to know I'm flattered by all this. And deep down I'm sure for a long time I'll wonder if this somehow this isn't my loss."

-/-/-

 _ **Billy and Jules**_

"Enough… I said enough!"

"Says who?"

"I say!"

-/-/-

 _ **Kevin**_

"The whole country is falling apart and these five bars are made perfect."

-/-/-

 _ **Wendy**_

"Jules, ya know, honey… this isn't real. You what it is? It's St Elmo's Fire. Electric flashes of light that appear in dark skies out of nowhere. Sailors would guide entire journeys by it, but the joke was on them. There was no fire. There wasn't even a St Elmo. They made it up. They made it up because they thought they needed it to keep them going when times got tough, just like you're making up all of this. We're all going through this. It's our time on the edge."

-/-/-

 _ **Leslie and Kevin**_

"Do you think my attachment to Alec is unnatural?"

"No, I think mine is."

-/-/-

 _ **Leslie and Alec involving Kevin**_

"What are we gonna do about your extracurricular love life, huh?"

"What extracurricular love live?"

"Alec, come on…"

"What did Kevin tell you?"

"Nothing…"

"What'd you tell her?! What'd you tell her?!"

"He told me nothing! It was just a hunch… until now."

-/-/-

 _ **Wendy**_

"You wanna know what's great? Last night I woke up in the middle of the night to make myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich... and ya know, it was my kitchen, it was my refrigerator, it was my apartment... and it was the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich that I have had in my entire life."

-/-/-

 _ **Leslie and Alec**_

"I love you!"

"Then marry me!"

-/-/-

 _ **Billy and Wendy**_

"You ever think about it?"

"Not while I'm still a virgin."

"Why didn't you ever tell me that before?"

"I don't know…"

"Come on… all those guys you went out with… well, Stewie Newman."

"Oh please… would you do it with Stewie Newman?"

-/-/-

 _ **Leslie and Jules with Wendy**_

"You just go along with your evening with Howie."

"Yes… no matter what he looks like."

-/-/-

 _ **Leslie**_

"Why is it that you, and Jules and my mother and everyone I know are so sure that I should marry Alec?"

"Well if you and Alec don't get married then I don't know who should."

-/-/-

 _ **Billy**_

"I'm gonna change… I'm gonna get the right job. Look, there's gonna be no more drinking, and no more women… you're not believe how outta hand it's gonna be."

-/-/-

 _ **Wendy and her Father**_

"Dad, do you ever hear me?"

"Well I do."

"I don't love Howie… I don't love him… I love Billy."

"Billy from the roof?"

"Yeah… yeah…"

-/-/-

 _ **Alec**_

"Wasted love! I just wish I could get it back."

-/-/-

 _ **Leslie**_

"I can't remember who met who first, or who fell in love with who first. All I can remember is the seven of us always together."

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

I can climb the highest mountain, cross the wildest sea  
I can feel St. Elmo's Fire burnin' in me, burnin' in me  
Just once in his life a man has his time, and my time is now, I'm coming alive  
I can hear the music playin', I can see the banners fly  
Feel like you're back again, and hope ridin' high  
Gonna be your man in motion, all I need is a pair of wheels  
Take me where my future's lyin', St. Elmo's Fire  
I can climb the highest mountain, cross the wildest sea  
I can feel St. Elmo's Fire burnin' in me

 **TBC…**


	2. You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

"Thanks for letting me stay here overnight, Wendy," Leslie said as she set up some blankets on the chair in Wendy's apartment.

Wendy waved it off a bit. "It's no problem really," she said and grabbed a pillow and handed it to her friend, "I'm just happy Jules was able to stay with someone for the night, too… you're moving into her old apartment, right?"

Leslie nodded. "Yeah, I'm moving everything there tomorrow. Jules is still gonna be there. It'll be like when I moved in with her after everything except I'll be paying the rent for a little while. At least till she starts her new job."

"Well, that's good… do we know who she's staying with for the night?"

Leslie hesitated this time. "She's staying with Alec for the night."

Wendy looked at her friend with a sad look. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.

Leslie looked at Wendy with a confused look. "Why're you sorry?"

"Cause I made you mention about Alec."

Leslie gave her a weak smile and went over to hug her blonde friend. "It's alright, Wendy," she said then said, "I'm gonna go and get some sleep… night Wendy."

"Goodnight Leslie," Wendy smiled and walked to her own bedroom in the small apartment.

While Wendy slept in the next room, Leslie had tried to fall asleep. Unfortunately, she didn't have much luck. She kept thinking about the same two people: Alec and Kevin. No matter how hard she had tried, she couldn't get them out of her head. Like she had told them, she loved them both- but what she didn't say was that she loved them in different ways. Kevin, she loved as a friend. But Alec… Alec she loved him like how women loved men how they wanted to spend the rest of their life with the man they were with.

Leslie had never actually said it out loud, but she really did want to marry Alec. She knew she loved Alec, and she knew Alec loved her. He would always ask her to marry him- at least before they broke up. She wanted to say yes, but while she was in high school, she had promised herself that she would accomplish something on her own before she got married and so far, that promise had been kept- except she hadn't really accomplished anything yet that would count. She knew her mother and everyone else was right, that she should just suck up her pride and marry him, and to be honest, she had been tempted to do just that. But the other problem was what she now knew about his "extra-curricular love life". She wanted to look over that, but it felt almost impossible.

"I wish I didn't still love him," Leslie mumbled with a sigh.

-/-/-

While Leslie tried to fall asleep in the next room, Wendy was trying to do the same thing.

The reason Wendy couldn't sleep was because she was up thinking about Billy. He had gone to New York, which took four hours to get to by bus from where they were in Georgetown. She had told her father that she loved Billy, and if she was being honest, it crushed her to watch that bus drive away.

For some odd reason, it all felt unreal to her.

Billy said he would call her every day. Wendy was nervous that after a while- maybe a week, maybe a month, a few months, a year or however long- that his calls would slowly but surely decrease. Maybe they would end up talking once a week instead of once a day, which would lead to once a month, which would slowly lead to no calls whatsoever. And where would that leave Wendy? Sitting in her parents' house at dinner as they tried to set her up with another guy that worked for the company just like Howie.

It was no secret that Wendy loved Billy, and deep down somewhere in herself, she knew that he loved her too. Yet, there was something inside of her that kept telling her that they weren't meant to be together, not yet anyway. Maybe in the future they would end up together, but they were still young and had long lives to live.

-/-/-

"Thanks for letting me stay over for the night, Alec," Jules said as she spread out the blankets he let her use for the night.

Alec was leaning against the counter and nodded. "It's not a problem, Jules," he said, "To be honest, it's not much different that it was a week or two ago."

Jules let out a chuckle and so did Alec. Jules smile disappeared as quickly as it came. "You know Leslie and I are gonna move into my old apartment together, right?"

Alec's smile faded as he nodded and looked across the room. "Yeah, I know. Kirby told me."

Jules nodded. "I just figured you should know-"

"Why?" Alec snapped at her.

Jules jumped a bit at him. "I just figured that you would want to know. I mean, you obviously still care a lot about Leslie."

"Things are over between us alright, Jules? I get what she said after Billy's bus left, but that doesn't change the fact that even if we ever did get back together that she slept with Kevin."

"No offense, but what does Kevin and her sleeping together really have to do with any of this?"

"Cause she knew I was mad and I didn't mean what I said at the party."

"Again, no offense, Alec, but what did you except Leslie to think? You told her you wanted her outta here, what's she supposed to think?"

Alec looked at her with an annoyed expression. "Forget it," he snapped, then muttered, "I can't explain it. I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight," Jules sighed.

"Goodnight," Alec said quietly then went to the old bedroom him and Leslie had shared just a week before.

-/-/-

Kevin looked through his pictures of Leslie- part of his old "props"- for the last time and then put them in a shoebox, then placed the shoebox on top of the fridge. At this point, he figured he had to basically get over her. As least he should try, considering that Alec had held him upside over the end of a two story high fire escape. Despite his politician career, if Leslie hadn't stopped him, Alec probably would've dropped him over the edge.

Kevin did feel bad at that point. He didn't feel bad for telling Leslie how he felt, but he did feel kind of bad for everything that happened after that. The situation at the party was just Alec and Leslie both mad at each other, and then later on when Alec came into Kevin's apartment, it was obvious that he was a little drunk. The thing was, there are different types of drunks: angry, sad, happy, honest, and ranting. And Alec was an honest drunk.

" _I don't think I am ever going to be able to get Leslie back,"_ kept running through Kevin's head.

That's what Kevin felt guilty about; what had happened between him and Leslie. At that point- when Alec had walked into his apartment- he could really tell that both Alec and Leslie loved each other and with how much he had been talking with Leslie and Alec, and everything made him feel like everything was his own fault… and in a way, it was somewhat his.

-/-/-

Kriby ripped up the schedule he had gotten from the hospital for Dale Bieberman. It's not that he was mad at her, but he finally decided that he would let her go and he would live his own life. He had realized- with a lot of help- that he was wasting his time chasing after Dale.

"What's that?" Kevin asked as he placed a box on top of the refrigerator.

Kirby looked up then at the ripped pieces of paper in his hands. "Oh, uh… Dale's schedule," Kirby answered.

Kevin gave a shocked look at his friend. "I thought you worked hard to get that?" He held back a smirk.

Kirby rolled his eyes. "Ha-ha-ha… anyway, I figured I should let her go."

"Took you long enough."

"Ok Mr Took-you-long-enough, what about you getting over Leslie?"

"Done and over with," Kevin shrugged.

-/-/-

Billy got off the bus in New York City. He had arranged a place to live for a little while- with help from Alec, of course. It was a bar with a small one room apartment- not including the kitchen and bathroom- but he would be able to work at the bar instead of paying for the apartment. His work would be what he would pay but he would be paid a little bit so he could afford food and such.

Billy had also convinced the owner- who was also the manager- that he could play with the band there on Friday nights. The owner said yes after a little persuasion and he even said that if Billy did well enough with the audience, he would even get payed for it.

"I wonder if Wendy's awake," Billy mumbled as he looked at the phone.

 **I had already uploaded this story to fanfiction. Net, then I deleted it after this chapter. I have decided to re-upload it and keep it there. I think St Elmo's Fire is a totally underrated movie and there are like no fan fics for this movie. There are exactly eight, now there are nine. I am one of nine in the whole world (at least on this site).**

 **This may or may not be updated quickly or between long periods of time. I am working on three other fan fics, one is about half way done, the other is about one-fourth and the other I'm not even sure and I'm just taking it by the years (If you're reading it you know which one I'm talking about). I'm not doing this story for popularity, I'm doing this mostly for my own personal ships and just so if there are people who are like me, there is one other story for them to read.**

 **Peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=**


	3. The Pretender

The next morning, Leslie thanked Wendy again and left her friend's apartment.

Leslie packed everything that she had at Wendy's apartment overnight and packed it all in her car. She drove over to where she used to live with Alec and hoped that Jules would just come down to meet her. After waiting in the car for nearly ten minutes, she let out a sigh as she started to get out of the car and went to the front door. Just as she was about to ring the bell, Jules came out of the building and greeting her. _Thank you,_ she thought thankfully as they got into the car and let out a breath of relief.

The two girls dropped off their things at the apartment then drove to a secondhand furniture shop in town. They would've bought brand new furniture, but at the moment, they couldn't really afford to buy new brand new furniture. At first, Jules was hesitant about getting furniture that had already been owned and used by another person, but Leslie promised that they would clean it themselves or either have it cleaned by a professional. Jules had agreed one hundred percent after that.

The pieces of furniture that the two bought was a couch, a recliner, a coffee table, a bookshelf, a few cabinets, a few side tables, two clothes drawers, two bed frames, and some lamps. The also bought a small table to eat on and a few chairs to go along with it. The whole purchase was a little over four hundred dollars, which was less than the two had expected, especially since the furniture was not even five years old.

The next thing that the girls did was paint the apartment. Thankfully, Wendy had some extra pain from painting her own apartment that they could use, along with the few cans that they had bought with the leftover furniture money. They painted the shared bedroom lavender. The bathroom was a mix between the already pink color and the newly added cream color. The living room was a light shade of blue that was like a sky blue. The kitchen was a mix between cream and the same lavender as their bedroom.

"It's really a shame," Jules said as they painted.

Leslie gave her a confused look. "What is?" she asked.

"We're painting over Billy Idol's face."

"So what?"

" _So?_ What? You don't like Billy Idol?"

"I do, but to be honest, I wouldn't want him painted on my wall. It got pretty creepy when you had him there."

"Well, don't tell Ron that you didn't like it."

"Why not?"

Jules tried to hold back a laugh. "Cause he loves Billy Idol."

-/-/-

The next day, Kirby left his apartment and drove over to where Leslie and Jules lived. Him and Jules were both going to go to the employment agency in town to find new jobs that would suit both of them nicely.

It took Kirby a little around fifteen to twenty minutes to get to his two friend's new/old apartment. When he got there, Jules opened the door and had nearly pulled his arm out of its socket when she dragged him inside of the apartment. When he was in there, it smelled like fresh paint. He saw Leslie in the kitchen jump at the sound of the front door practically slam shut. When Jules let go of his arm, he moved his shoulder around to soothe its soreness and cradled it with his left hand. "Good morning to you too, Jules," Kirby said in a slightly annoyed tone.

Jules held back a laugh. "Sorry," she smiled, "But Leslie and I both wanted your opinion on how the apartment came out."

"So you had to drag me in here and nearly pull my arm off? If you had just asked me to come in, I would've."

"Are you gonna give us your opinion on the apartment or not? Leslie and I worked on it all day yesterday."

Kirby saw Leslie mouth to him from the kitchen, _"I'm sorry about her. You know how she is."_ He smiled a bit, nodded and looked around the apartment. "It looks good. I'm guessing it as Leslie's idea to get rid of the Billy Idol wall portrait?" he asked in a teasing tone.

Leslie walked from the kitchen into the living room. "Yes it was," she smiled, obviously proud of her accomplishment, "It wasn't easy, I can tell you that much."

"Don't you think it looked better in here _with_ his portrait on the wall?" Jules asked Kirby.

He shrugged. "I'm afraid I'm gonna have to go with Leslie on this one. I'm partial to Billy Idol, but I'm not that into punk rock. Plus I'm not a girl or androgynous, so you can't really go by me whether or not I would like having him on my wall."

Jules gave a face that showed she was not happy with his answer. "You ready to go?"

Leslie held back a laugh. "You think it'll be hard to find a job?"

Both Jules and Kirby shrugged. "I don't think so," he answered.

"Well, if you two get discouraged, just remember: the best job Lucy and Ethel could get was at a chocolate factory and they couldn't even handle that."

The two both let out a laugh and waved goodbye as they left the apartment. They went down stairs to the ground floor, out the door, to Kirby's car and headed over to the employment agency.

-/-/-

Kevin walked into the building where he worked as a writer for the newspaper. When he got to the department, he was greeted by most of the people he knew from work, and he greeted them all back. When he got to his desk space- if that's what you wanted to call it- there was a note on the desk. A folded up piece of paper sitting next to one of his books. A confused expression found its way to his face as he picked up the paper, unfolded it and read:

" _Kevin, please come to my office when you get in. I'd like to talk to you. –Mr. Jacob Robertson"_

 _He's never asked to see me before,_ Kevin thought. His boss- Mr. Jacob Robertson- had always been a good boss. He had never had any problems before with Mr. Robertson. In all honesty, he liked having Mr. Robertson as his first actual boss in his life. That's why he didn't mind too much working at the newspaper.

Kevin crumbled up the note and stuffed it in one of the drawers of his desk. He draped his jacket over the back of his chair and slung his messenger bag over the back on the seat. He ran his hands over his face in a failed attempt to make himself look more awake as he started towards his boss's office.

-/-/-

Alec let out a small sigh of annoyance, hoping that his coworkers were all too distracted to notice. No one did seem to notice his somewhat loud sigh, which relieved him to an extent. In some aspects, he didn't really care if they had heard, but the only reason he actually gave a damn about whether or not they had heard him was that he didn't want to lose a well-paying job that was hard to get when you were still considered right out of college.

The current project Alec's coworkers were working on was for a campaign for Senator Hogdes. Quite honestly, he wasn't even close to being interested in all this campaigning garbage, but it went along with this sort of job.

One of Alec's coworkers looked over at him and nudged his arm slightly. "You alright, Alec?" he asked.

Alec nodded. "Uh, yeah. I just uh, I had this phone call I had to make. It was kinda important and-"

"You can go and take it."

"You sure?" _Please say yes._

"Yeah, we'll be alright. Go make your phone call."

Alec left the room and went out to the hallway. When he got to the hallway, he walked over to the indoor phone booth that was set up inside the building hallway. _Who is there to call?_ he thought to himself. He couldn't call Leslie, that was for sure. Not yet at least. The same went for Kevin. Jules and Kirby were out getting jobs so they wouldn't be near a phone. He didn't think that he should call Billy, considering it was only his first day at his new job in New York. That left Wendy.

Alec dialed the number for Wendy's work phone. He heard it ring three times before he heard the receiver on the other end. " _Hello, this is Wendy Beamish, how can I help you?"_ he heard Wendy say.

"Ah, Miss Beamish, how are you? This is Alec Newbary," he said, pretending like it was an important business call.

" _Alec? Did you just call me_ Miss Beamish?"

"Yes, yes. I'm making this call from the senator's office."

" _Oh, one of those calls. I get it. What is it? Some boring meeting type thing?"_

"Yes, very time consuming. That sort of project is a complete waste of time."

He heard Wendy laugh over the phone. _"You're really good at coming up with those substitutes. How often do you do this?"_

Alec rolled his eyes. "You'd be surprised at how many times this sort of thing has happened. It's craxy."

Wendy laughed again. _"Well, as much as I'd love to talk, I have to get back to work. Sorry, Alec. I'll talk to you later."_

Alec fake chuckled, "Alright, thank you for your time, Miss Beamish. We'll keep in touch. Have a good day." Then he hung up.

Alec leaned his hand against the wall of the phone booth and stood there for a moment before leaving the booth and going back out into the hall and back into the office. He let out a slight sigh and went back inside the office. "How'd the phone call go?" his coworker asked him.

Alec noted that they had all finished the previous campaigning project while he was on the phone with Wendy. He gave a smile and nodded, "It went very well, thank you for excusing me to make it."

 **This was actually kinda fun to write.**

 **Oh so guess what, I started my two new college courses yesterday and every time we start a new class, we have to do an introduction of ourselves for the rest of the class, and there's another girl who is named Sarah who is 16 who is a junior who is an only child and who like to write and who wants to write a screenplay! We're like twins, I swear.**

 **Also a few of the cast members of Days of our Lives are here in New jersey at a barnes and noble 45 minutes away tonight and me and my two best friends can't go :( but it kinda works cause they're having the two who play Hope and Steve, but not Bo so what's the point?**

 **Anyway, hope you all are well and that you all enjoyed the chapter! Peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=**


	4. Changes

Kevin knocked on the door of his boss's office. He tried to peek into the small window of the office, trying to see if his boss was on the phone or even if his boss was in the office. When he couldn't see his boss, he turned around and started away from the office and back to his own desk. _I'll try coming back later,_ he thought to himself.

As Kevin started to walk away, he heard footsteps coming up from not too far behind him. He hoped that it wasn't his boss, finding that it would be extremely embarrassing if his boss had caught him walking away from his office. "Ah, Kevin," he heard in Mr. Robertson's voice. It didn't sound angry or annoyed, more like his usual happy go lucky type voice.

Kevin grimaced, then plastered a fake smile on his face and turned to face his boss. "Good morning, sir," he said.

Mr. Robertson then- thankfully- smiled back at the young writer in front of him. "Good morning, Kevin. I'm guessing you got my note?"

"Uh, yes. Yes, sir, I did. I just came in about five or ten minutes, but I just got here."

"I didn't keep you waiting long, did I?"

"No, no. Not at all."

"Alright. Why don't you come inside? I still have to talk to you."

"Uh, yes sir."

Mr. Robertson chuckled as they went in. "Kevin, calm down," he smiled, "I get why you see nervous. I've never called you in here before. Don't worry, I just have something to tell you that I don't want anyone else to hear. It's nothing to be nervous about, I promise."

Kevin gave an embarrassed smile as he followed his boss into the office.

The office was fairly large, at least compared to the other offices throughout the department. It had a large window that reached from the floor to the ceiling, showing a great view of the crowded but not terribly busy city. _I wish I have my camera,_ Kevin thought when he looked out the window. When he sat in one of the two seats in front of the desk, he saw photos of his boss and who he guess was his family spread out across the desk, both individual and group shots of them. There was an older but attractive woman who looked to be around Mr. Robertson's age, a young man who looked to either be almost out of college or already out, a young girl who looked not too much younger than the boy, and another boy who looked to be in his high school years. Then there was a Dalmatian in the family portraits.

"That's my family," Mr. Robertson smiled and picked up what looked to be one of the more recent portraits, "My wife Anna, my son Alexander, my daughter Adaline, and my other son Adam. We call the two older ones Alex and Ada, by their own decision. And that's our dog, Banzai." He pointed to each individually.

Kevin gave a slightly confused look. "Banzai?" he asked.

Mr. Robertson nodded and let out a chuckle. "Yeah, you heard right. Adam saw science fiction movie with his friends last year not too long before we got the dog, and he thought it'd be a cool name for the dog we got."

"Was it that Buckaroo Banzai film?"

"Yeah, that one! _The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension_. Did you see it?"

"Yeah. I actually wrote a review for it when I was in Georgetown last year."

"Impressive," Mr. Robertson smiled, "Speaking of your writing, that's what I wanted to talk to you about."

Kevin's heart started to beat a bit faster in his chest. "Is there something wrong with it?" he asked.

"No, not at all. In fact, it's actually quite good. Especially for someone with very little experience in the field, such as yourself. No offense."

"None taken."

"I especially liked your recent piece, _What is the Meaning of Life?_ It was very original, not something found very often in a newspaper. Now granted, we only work for a town newspaper, but it reaches lots of different areas of the state, believe it or not. Due to that, the owner wants to start a magazine so that he can reach out to the young people, such as people your age or younger. Now, you do know that you're the youngest writer here, right?"

"Yeah, I noticed that. Why?"

"Like I said, your writing is exceptional for a guy your age. I want you to be my right hand man for when they start the magazine. You'll still be here in this department since I've been made in charge of the magazine. But you'll be right under me for the magazine, how it's ran, what kind of articles or stories are in it. And you would also write for it."

Kevin's eyes widened. "Sir, I-I'm honored."

Mr. Robertson smiled. "I'm glad you feel that way, Kevin. Look, since it's Friday, I'll give the weekend to think it over. When you come in on Monday, you come here and tell me whether or not you'll take the position, or I'll come to you. That sound good?"

"That sounds great. Thank you, sir."

Mr. Robertson stood up and Kevin did the same. "I'll see you this Monday," he smiled and shook hands with the young writer. After that, Kevin left the office, closing the door behind him, then went back to his own desk. He plopped himself down into his chair, his bag and coat still as they were when he came in, and let out a relieved sigh. _I'd be a dumbass to turn this down_ , he thought.

-/-/-

Kirby and Jules left the employment agency in the late afternoon that day, both with new jobs that they would be starting the next day. Jules had gotten a job in retail, at a gown store in town. Kevin had gotten a job at a law firm, even thought he was still studying to become a lawyer.

"Hey, Kirby," Jules said as they both got into the car, "I need your help with something."

Kirby gave her a skeptic look. "Depends on what it is you need help with,  
he shrugged and drove off.

"Don't worry, it's nothing bad. It involves Alec and Leslie, then Billy and Wendy."

"Are you forgetting that Billy's in New York."

"No, I'm not an idiot, Kirby. It involves all of their relationships."

"Alright, I guess I could help. But what about Kevin? He's trying to get rid of 'em, but he's having a tough time shaking his feeling for Leslie."

"I have it all worked out. I'm gonna have Wendy help me out with Alec and Leslie, maybe even call Billy to help me out as best as he could with them. Then I'll get Kevin, Alec and Leslie to help me out with Wendy and Billy. We don't tell Alec and Leslie about our plans to get them back together, and we don't tell Billy and Wendy about getting them together. That simple."

"Relationships are _not_ simple, Jules."

Jules rolled her eyes. "You've been living with Kevin for too long, you sound just like him… but you'll help me?"

Kirby thought for a moment. "Yeah, I'm in. Alec and Leslie were like the poster couple for love. But you have to answer me this so I can help: why do you wanna get Billy and Wendy together?"

"Cause it's so obvious that they like each other, even with Billy's screwing around. And now that he and Felicia got their annulment that makes life easier."

-/-/-

Billy used one of the rags he found in the cleaning supply closer to wipe down the tables and bar counter. Was it somehow degrading? Sure. All he did during the day was clean up the place from the night before cause the bar didn't really fill up till the evening. A few people came during the day, but not too many.

At least he had a somewhat steady income and a place to sleep at night. And a phone to call Wendy.

 _Wendy._

Ever since he had gotten to New York, he hadn't had any time to call her. _You love her,_ his conscious scolded him, _You make time for the girl you truly love, you asshole._ He looked around the bar, seeing that it was currently uninhabited other than himself. Seeing that it was empty, he went to the phone and dialed Wendy's work number. When there was no answer for that number, he tried her apartment phone number.

After five rings, he heard her voice. _"Hello?"_ Her voice sounded annoyed with a mix of tiredness, probably from the people she had to deal with at her job.

"Wendy? It's me, Billy," he said, "How are you?"

" _Oh, hi, Billy! I'm alright, how's New York treating you_?" Her voice had already perked up.

"It's not terrible. Real crowded and loud, but you get used to it… uh, Wendy, I wanna apologize to you."

" _For what?"_

"I haven't called you since I got here to New York."

" _So?"_

"So, I feel bad about it… I miss you. I have ever since that bus drove away."

She was silent for a moment. _"I miss you too, Billy. I wish you were still here."_

"I wish I was with you too… how was work?"

The two ended up talking for nearly two. The bar hadn't really become packed until then, and Billy's boss had told him to: "get off the phone so you can do what I'm paying you to do."

" _I'll let you go then_ ," Wendy said, _"Good luck."_

"Thanks. I'll try to call you tomorrow, alright? Same time?" Billy asked.

She laughed. _"Same time. Goodbye, Billy."_

"Bye, Wendy." Then he hung up.

As Billy hung up and walked over to get a drink for a few of the customers at the counter, he had a smile on his face. His thoughts were filled of memories of times he had been with Wendy, both good and bad, but mostly good.

-/-/-

Jules thanked Kirby as he drove off then went inside to the apartment building. When she got to her shared apartment, she saw that Leslie had already gotten back from work. The two greeted each other and sat down at the small table. "So how did job hunting go for you and Kirby today?" Leslie asked as they sat down.

Jules smiled. "We both got jobs," she smiled, "Kirby got a job at a law firm as an intern since he's still working toward that, and I got a job at a dress shop in town."

"That's great! But you know what that means, right?"

"No, what?"

"We won't be getting any free chocolate now," Leslie teased.

"You're mean," Jules laughed.

 **to those who read this, hello. How are you?**

 **I know this story doesn't have a lot of reads, but I'm not doing this for reads. I'm doing this because I love the movie** _ **St. Elmo's Fire**_ **, and I feel it is underappreciated. Before I wrote this, there were only eight fan fic's for this movie. EIGHT. I want to be one of those now nine, because there might be someone like me who loves this movie and wants to read fan fic on it, but they don't wanna write. That's where this comes in.**

 **Anyway, for those who read it- hope you liked it and peace from al lthe hippies of the world! =^-^=**


	5. Tomorrow Is A Long Time

"So will you help me?" Jules asked Wendy.

"Sure," Wendy shrugged, "I always thought those two should get married. It could still happen."

The six friends had all met at Houlihan's like they had agreed to the night that Billy left for New York. They had all gotten to the combined diner and restaurant within minutes of each other. Leslie and Jules had driven there together, and Kevin and Kirby had done the same. Both Alec and Wendy had taken their own cars to the place.

Jules and Wendy were talking in the bathroom. When the two had gotten up to go to the bathroom after they had all ordered their lunch, Leslie had chosen to stay at the table with the three guys. Jules had taken the opportunity to tell her blonde friend about her plan to get Alec and Leslie back together. Of course, while explaining her plan, Jules left out any of her plans about getting Wendy and Billy back together.

Jules let out a slight squeal and hugged her friend excitedly. "Thank you so much," she smiled.

Wendy laughed. "You know I'm not just doing this for you, I'm doing it for Alec and Leslie. They were so good together," she said.

"Either way, you said you were gonna help. No take backs."

-/-/-

The two girls got back to the table at the same time their waitress had brought all six plates out for the six young people. Kirby had given Leslie a questioning look, silently asking her why Jules and Wendy might've taken so long in the bathroom. Leslie just let out a chuckle and shrugged in response to his silent question.

While the six friends ate, they also talked. They talked about current events, movies, music, memories, and even politics- which was a bit difficult due to Alec recently becoming a Republican and working for the senator. Either way, the group of friends made jokes about nearly everything they talked about, so there was no major controversy due to politics.

All the while, Kevin thought about bringing up his boss's job offer. He was most likely going to take the job, but he wanted to get his friend's opinions on the job. Even if his friends didn't support the idea one hundred percent, he'd end up still taking it, just for the fact that it would be a great thing to put on his resume in the future when applying for other jobs. It would give him great experience in the field.

Once all six friends had finished eating and were now sitting drinking coffee, that's when Kevin decided to bring up the job offer. He cleared his throat, gaining all of his friend's attentions. "I, uh… I wanted to get your opinions on something," he said to the other five people sitting at the table.

A few "okay's" and "sure's" were heard around the table in response to his opening statement.

"Alright," he started, kinda playing with the rim of his mug nervously, "So, at the newspaper, my boss offered me a huge promotion."

"What kind of promotion?" Wendy asked him curiously.

"The paper is going to be starting a magazine and since my boss at the newspaper is gonne be the one in charge of it, he offered me a job as basically being his right hand man, while writing for it."

All three girls at the table grinned widely and the two guys smiled at their friend. "Kevin, that's great," Leslie smiled, "Congratulations."

"Congratulations, Kevin," Alec smiled genuinely, slightly confusing and shocking Kevin.

"You're gonna take the job, right?" Jules asked.

Kevin shrugged a bit. "I'm not one hundred percent sure yet. But I have to tell my boss yes or no tomorrow when I go in."

"You have to say yes," Leslie said, "This could open up so many opportunities for you as a writer."

"Kevin, I'm sorry, but you'd be an idiot not to take this job," Kirby chuckled, earning a laugh from everyone else.

Wendy tried to hold in her laugh. "Kirby…"

Kevin chuckled, "No, he's right, Wendy. I'd be a complete dumbass not to take the job."

"So does that mean you're gonna take the job?" Jules asked and took a sip from her coffee.

"I guess so," he shrugged, "I was probably gonna end up taking it anyway, even if you guys didn't think it was a good idea."

-/-/-

Billy went down the staircase of the inside of the bar he worked in where he lived in the upstairs apartment attached with the building. He walked behind the counter, grabbed the apron he used and tied it around his waist as part of his "uniform". He then glanced at the wall clock… _5:59pm_ … even though it was a Sunday, people still came to the bar.

This was New York City, right? And in New York City, people still drank on Sundays, even if it was morning.

No one had really come into the bar until around 6:15. There were a few people who came and made small talk with Billy. A few girls that looked to be around his age, maybe a bit younger or maybe a bit older, had tried to flirt with him. He had politely- as much as you can be polite in New York City- turned them down, saying that he had a girlfriend. Even then they would persist, saying things like "she doesn't have to know" or "so what?", but he would say things were pretty serious and that he was faithful to her and her alone. That made them stop.

When Billy had said he had a girlfriend, he had thought about Wendy. Even though they were not technically boyfriend and girlfriend, especially with them being cities and hours away from each other- four to five hours by bus from Georgetown to New York City, actually. He couldn't have a long distance relationship, though. He had done that once during high school when his girlfriend had moved away to another state due to her father's job and it didn't work out _at all._ The slight relationship he had with Wendy at this point was hard, but he _wanted_ to make it work. He wouldn't have it any other way.

The two of them had decided that they were both too busy on Sundays to talk on the phone. It's not that they didn't want to talk on the phone, but at the time they would call each other, that would be too late on Sundays. They would both be just recuperating from the previous week, but at the same time, getting ready for the upcoming week.

Billy had been a lot happier lately. When he was happy, he worked more and worked better than usual. When that happened, more money came in, which made his boss happy. He boss didn't know why he was so happy, and quite frankly, he didn't really give a damn about the reason. But he did know that he wanted his employee to stay that way.

Billy's boss- Justin Robles- was a man in his late forties. He was Billy's height, but weighed a bit more, but he was not overweight. Honestly, he was in pretty good shape for a man his age. He owned the bar and was a family friend of Alec's parents- which is how Alec had helped Billy get the job. Justin was married and he and his wife had two kids, one boy and one girl. They were both in high school still; his daughter was a sophomore, his son was a junior. He was a fair man, but he also knew how to keep a business from tanking. Even if that business was just one of the many bars in New York City.

"You sure have been happy lately," Justin said, "What's the catch?"

Billy shrugged. "No catch," he answered.

"So you're just happy? No particular reason?"

Billy hesitated a moment. "Well, I guess _technically_ there is one."

"I knew it," Justin chuckled, "Let me guess. Is it some girl?"

"Yeah. Yeah, a girl back at Georgetown. She graduated with me a few months back. She back there with our friends, and I miss her. But we've been talking on the phone nearly every day."

"So _that's_ who you've been on the phone with every day this week, and always at the same time."

"Yeah, that's her."

"So, you two an item or what?"

"Technically," Billy started, "It's… it's kinda complicated."

Justin nodded in understanding. "Got a picture of this girl?" he asked.

Billy nodded, dug in his pocket for his wallet, and pulled out a group picture of him and the six at _Saint Elmo's Bar_. He pointed to Wendy. "That's her," he said.

"She's cute." Justin handed back the photo.

"Yeah. She's real sweet too. I'll tell you, I don't deserve her at all. She deserves a guy way better than me."

"But she loves you."

Billy didn't recognize how it was more of a statement than a question. "I really don't why, sometimes," Billy answered with a slight sigh, "But in all honesty, I'm not complaining about. I love her."

-/-/-

As the six friends walked out of Houlihan's, they talked about plans to meet there again at the same time the following Sunday. They had decided on Houlihan's again, mostly because they could not think of another place at the moment that was in the area or at least close to all them.

As they talked, Alec looked at Leslie. She was hugging herself to help keep herself warm in the cool autumn air. He noticed her eyes; they were usually happy and filled with life. At the moment, they looked dull and tired. He looked away from her when she turned her head to look at him for a moment. When she turned away, he looked at her eyes from the corner of his own eyes. _I can only think of a few times I ever saw her eyes look that way,_ he thought, _and it was always my fault._

As they all talked among themselves before they all had to leave and get ready for the upcoming week, Alec walked slowly over to Leslie. "Hey," he said in a soft tone.

Leslie looked up at him. "Hi," she said in an equally soft tone.

"How you doin'?"

"I'm ok. In all honesty, I've kinda had trouble sleeping lately, but I'll manage. How are you?"

"Can't complain, I guess."

The two stood in silence for a moment before Leslie spoke up. "So Kevin's promotion. That's a great opportunity, huh?" she asked in attempt to fill the awkward silence.

Alec nodded. "Yeah, it's great. I'm happy for him."

"Yeah… how's working at the senator's office?"

"It's not terrible. I'd be lying if I said it didn't get boring sometimes. How's work going for you?"

"It's alright. It's busy, but that's nothing new." She let out a slight chuckle.

The two stood quiet for a moment again, oblivious to their four friends slightly eavesdropping on their conversation. "Uh," Alec started, "Leslie, do you think we could meet up for lunch tomorrow, maybe?"

"Alec, I… I really don't think we should."

"No, it's just to talk. I just wanna talk to you."

"You promise it's just to talk?"

"I'll put my right hand on a Bible and say it again if you want me to." Alec smiled slightly.

Leslie couldn't hold back a smile. "Alright," she answered, "I'll meet you outside your office building tomorrow at 12:30."

"Deal."

The two turned back over to their friend's conversations, acting like nothing had even happened.

 **For those reading this, for the parts where I talked about New York, I can talk like that cause I live within an hour of New York City cause I'm in New Jersey so yeah.**

 **Also, for those reading, if you have a suggestion for what job Leslie should have, please tell me. I don't know what I should have as her occupation.**

 **Anyway, hope those who are reading this like the chapter! Peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=**


	6. Don't Worry Be Happy

"So you have lunch today with Alec, huh?" Jules asked with a slight smirk.

Leslie slightly rolled her eyes. "Yes," she answered, "I have lunch with Alec today, why?"

"Just curious, that's all."

"It's not a date, Jules."

"I know, I know."

In the entire scheme of Jules plan to get Alec and Leslie back together, she had never expected Alec to ask Leslie to lunch to talk. Her friend had kept saying that it wasn't an actual date, but Jules knew deep down inside herself that it was a date. She felt that her friend knew that deep down inside of herself, but she just wasn't willing to admit it considering all her and her ex had gone through. It was a lunch _date,_ but not in the romantic sense and not in an amorous way. Either way, Jules hadn't expected it and if everything worked out, it would make her life so much easier.

"It's not a date," Leslie reminded her friend as she left the apartment to go to work.

-/-/-

Kevin walked to his desk area, placed his backpack on his seat and laid his jacket over the back of the chair. He went into the drawer in his desk and pulled out the note from the previous Friday that had been placed on the desk the week before by his boss. He read the note before taking a deep breath, folding the paper back up, placing it back in the drawer and walking away from his desk and toward his boss' office.

Kevin knocked on the door of his boss' office and when he heard him say "come in" through the door, he wrapped his hand around the door handle and turned it, opening the door. The door creaked slightly as he pushed it open and then closed it shut. When he looked over to Mr. Robertson's desk, he was slightly shocked when he saw a young girl standing over his shoulder. She looked to be around twenty years old. _I've seen her somewhere before,_ he thought.

"Ah, Kevin," Mr. Robertson said as he looked up, "I was hoping you'd come in today. Then I'd be left in suspense about your answer." He let out a kind hearted laugh.

Kevin chuckled a bit nervously. "Well, I'm here," she chuckled, "And I have my answer for you."

Mr. Robertson stood up and walked over to the side of his desk, an eager smile on his face. "Is it the answer I'm hoping for?"

Kevin noticed the young girl now looking at him, a small smile on her face. "If the offer's still on the table, I'll take it."

The older man clapped his hands together once and walked around the desk and over to Kevin. "Wonderful! This is great news, really it is. Oh! Since you've accepted the job, I'd like for you to meet someone. Ada, come here please."

The girl who had been smiling cleared her throat and tried to look professional as she walked up to Mr. Robertson, who continued, "Kevin, this is my daughter, Adaline. Sweetheart, this is Kevin Dolenz, one of my writers."

She held out her hand, which Kevin accepted and the two shook hands. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Dolenz," she said, her small smile back in its place.

Kevin nodded. "Just call me Kevin," he said politely, "And nice to meet you too, Miss Robertson."

"Ada… and my father speaks highly of you and your writing. Maybe I could read some of your work sometime."

"Sure, yeah. If you'd like to. I'd be happy to get your feedback on it."

"Well, she will be the editor," Mr. Robertson said, gaining back the attention of the young people, "So if you don't get a chance before next week, she'll be reading your work very soon."

"I look forward to working with you, mister-" she stopped to correct herself, "I mean, Kevin."

Kevin smiled, "You too, Ada."

-/-/-

To both Alec and Leslie, the morning seemed to go by both quickly and slowly- but more quick than slow. The only slow parts for both of them were the few moments when their lunch date would slip from their minds and it was just like any other Monday. The times when the ex-lovers would remember their lunch date, that's when the morning would start to fly by and they would both panic and start to get nervous.

Like Leslie had said she would, she met Alec outside of the building he worked in at 12:30. She leaned against Jules' Jeep- which she had bought back and Jules said she could keep it because she didn't want it anymore- and stood up straight when her ex-boyfriend had come out of the building. The two had a somewhat awkward feeling as they greeted one another, but both tried to ignore is as best as they could.

Alec and Leslie both took their own cars to the diner in town where they'd be having lunch. One would follow the other to the diner. When they got there, the two got a booth that could fit two people comfortably, but only two people.

After the two ordered their lunches, the two sat in an awkward silence for a minute before a word was said. "So, uh," Leslie started, "What'd you wanna talk to me about?"

"Oh, uh… to be honest, I actually just wanted to apologize to you," Alec answered.

She gave a confused look. "For what?"

"Oh come one, you know damn well what." He let out a slightly nervous chuckle as he teased her.

She let out her own chuckle. "Fine, I cave. And I have some apologizing to do too, then."

"Who goes first?"

"Uh, you can. You're a guy, you know how to apologize better than I do," Leslie joked, getting a laugh out of Alec.

-/-/-

"Maybe you should try this red dress," Jules suggested to her current customer as she pulled the suggested dress off of the rack. She then handed the special hanger in which the dress was on to the customer in which she was helping.

Jules actually enjoyed working at the dress shop in town. It was simple and it involved one of her favorite things to do: telling people how to dress. Granted, she couldn't be rude about it when the customers wouldn't listen to her advice about a dress, but in the last couple of days, she had developed a strategy that she could say something rude, but not have it actually sound rude. It was almost like a play on words and tone, that a person had to think about to figure out that she was actually being insulting. If the person really thought about it, and I mean _really_ thought about it, then it would click- but that wouldn't happen until the next week.

Jules considered it an art form that could not be taught, but you had to have been born with the gift.

Another plus about the dress shop was its location. It was right in the middle of town, which meant it was always somewhat busy. Also, there was a diner across the street and their food was really good, so she didn't have a long walk to take to get a good lunch, which was always a plus for Jules.

And thankfully, it was time for her lunch hour.

Jules rang up the red dress for her customer using her fake cheery voice that her boss had told her to use. She smiled and said a quiet "thank you". As the customer left the stores, she ran to the back to get her purse and back to the storefront to leave to go across the street. She looked through the window and at the diner. She looked through one of the windows of the diner and saw Alec and Leslie. _Of course they chose that diner,_ she thought.

Jules was happy that the two were actually at their lunch date and, what looked like to be, talking like civilized human beings. If she saw correctly, she even saw the two start laughing a few times. She smiled at the sight she saw. Her plan was working and she wasn't even doing anything. She had decided that it was worth missing a lunch at the diner.

-/-/-

"So you're a writer like your dad?" Kevin asked as they walked.

Ada nodded. "That's right," she smiled, "My brothers don't wanna be writers so when I told him I did, he couldn't have been happier."

Kevin and Ada had took their lunch break together to try and get to know each other, by Mr. Robertson's suggestion. Since they would be the two top people- other than himself- to be working for the magazine, he figured they should establish some sort of relationship. The two had lunch and were now walking around the park that was in walking distance of the building.

Kevin let out a chuckle. "When I told _my_ parents I wanted to be a writer, they just laughed in my face."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"No, no, it's fine. Actually, it made me work harder at my writing so I could be, quote- unquote, successful. So then if I did, I could prove that writing's not such a waste of time like they think."

"Your parents think that about writers?"

"Yeah. But you gotta understand that they're those type of people that think, if it doesn't involve law or being a doctor, there's no real money in it."

"I'm guessing your parents are either a doctor or a lawyer?"

"Exactly."

Ada chuckled. "That may then be the reason why my dad likes you so much."

"What do you mean?" Kevin asked her with a confused look on his face.

"Well, I mentioned how neither of my brothers write. My dad always dreamed that one of his sons would become some sort of writer, but they didn't. I remember when he first hired you, he couldn't stop going on about you. He was so happy that he had found such a talented young male writer."

"He was?"

"Oh yeah. Then when I started my third year of college, I decided I wanted to be a writer. I told him, and that sent him over the moon," she said with a chuckle, "My dad just loves writing. It's just his passion. He's even gotten a few books published from when he was younger before my brother Alex was born."

"Oh yeah, he's told me that. Do you ever plan on publishing some kind of book?"

"I'd like to. Do you?"

"Maybe. I'm not very good at fiction writing quite yet, I'm still working on that, but maybe."

"Speaking of your writing skills, I still plan on reading something of yours sometime."

"Well, when do you wanna read something?"

"How about over dinner? Tonight?"

Kevin unconsciously smiled a bit, impressed by her outgoing personality. "Alright," he answered, "How about at Fusaro's down the street? I'll pick you up around 7:30?"

Ada smiled back at him, dug around her purse for her business card- which had her address, phone number and pager number- and handed it to him. "It's a date," she smiled.

As the two walked back to the building where the newspaper- and soon to be- magazine offices were, Kevin couldn't help but smile. The last time he had remembered feeling the way he currently about Ada, was the first time he had met Leslie.

 **For those reading this cause I know you're out there, I see the stats of how many views the story has gotten. Based on how certain statistics, there are probably about 20 readers of this story. So thank you.**

 **Yes I did that math, don't judge me. I'm weird.**

 **I hope you like this story and think that it is worthy to be one of the only nine** _ **St. Elmo's Fire**_ **fan fictions. My two best friends (who are completely honest with me about my writing cause I get help from them all the time) think it's worthy because they say I'm an amazing writer along with a few of my other friends.**

 **The thing is, I never believe people when they complement me on anything. If you say I'm good at writing or impressions/impersonations (supposedly I'm amazing at those) I will not believe you. I don't even believe my mother when she says I am, yet we have the relationship where, if we suck at something, we will literally say "don't do that, you suck at that."**

 **Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter and HAPPY THANKSGIVING! =^-^=**


	7. Tonight's The Night

"That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," Leslie said with a small smile.

"Didn't you say that after our first date?" Alec teased with a chuckle.

She laughed. "It almost feels like nothing even happened this week… did I just make this weird?"

"No, you didn't, don't worry. It kinda felt that way to me too… look, Leslie, I was wondering if maybe-"

"We could start over?"

Alec let out a nervous chuckle. "Did _I_ just make this weird?"

If Leslie was being honest with herself, she _did_ want to get back together with Alec and try to start over. He was her first real love. She knew she still loved him, and even though they would need some more time, she did want to marry him. At this point, she was ready to marry him. She had discovered that two days after the two of them had broken up.

"Yes," Leslie answered, forgetting his last question.

Alec panicked. "I made this weird?" he asked her nervously.

She let out a chuckle. "Sorry, no that's not what I'm saying yes to."

"Then what are you saying yes to?"

"Yes, I'd like to start over."

-/-/-

Kevin and Ada returned to the newspaper's offices. When they got inside, both separated and went in two different directions. While she had gone back to her father's office, he had gone back to his desk. He sat himself down in his seat and looked over his desk. This week would be the last we he sat at that desk and, like Mr. Robertson had told him he'd have an office of his own- and Ada's office would be right next to his own office.

As Kevin sat there, his thoughts started to change from his new job to Ada. _Adaline Juliet Robertson._ Even though it sounded cliché to him, just the thought of her made him smile. If he was being honest with himself, he started to think about how he came out as gay, maybe that it was just a feeling he had because the only other girl he ever liked was taken. Now that he met Ada, he felt that maybe it was all just allusion.

 _I sound like Kirby,_ he thought.

As the day progressed on, Kevin found himself thinking about Ada. It's not that he didn't like her, far from that, but he felt bad that it seemed like their relationship would not remain professional. Not to mention how Ada was his boss' only daughter. What if they started to go out and it didn't work out between them? Would he still have a job? Would she? How would his relationship with his boss- her father- change if something happened between the two?

 _Stop,_ Kevin mentally scolded himself, _Try to think positive about something in your life just one damn time. Don't be so pessimistic for once in your life._

Kevin ran his hands over his face and let out a sigh. He decided that he would listen to his conscious and try not to be so pessimistic, at least about this. He'd been pessimistic his whole life, so it was a part of his personality. You can't just change everything about yourself. But for this relationship- if that's what it was already- with a positive attitude. Everything about it: the present and the future of it. He liked Ada, and it seemed like she liked him too. He would think of the good things that could happen instead of assuming the worst for his date with her later that night.

 _I have a date with Ada tonight,_ Kevin thought with a slightly nervous look, _I hope I don't screw it up._

-/-/-

Kirby went over the vocabulary terms in his textbook. He had decided to keep his long-time dream of becoming a defense attorney, so he had to study to take the LSAT. Once he took the LSAT and passed it, he'd be able to apply to law schools. After he graduated law school, he'd be able to take the Bar Exam and would be able to get his license. Maybe he'd even be able to open his own practice or start a partnership with another defense attorney.

Kirby had been hired for a paid internship at the law firm in town. His internship was almost the equivalent of a "gopher" in Hollywood. In Hollywood, people who are trying to get into the business get any job they can get on the set of a movie or with anyone involved in the movie. They are usually sent to go and get things that are needed, hence the name "gopher" because they "go for" things that are needed. That's exactly what Kirby's job most of the time would be- whether it was to get coffee, lunch, office supplies, certain files, whatever. It was his job to get it.

But along with being a gopher, he was allowed to go and watch trials and certain court cases as part of his learning experience and internship.

Kirby looked up when he heard one of the attorney's call his name. His last name, actually. No one in the office actually called him by his first name. They all called him "Keger" which was his last name, partly because they was already another attorney in the office who went by the name of Kirby- go figure that out- and also cause he was the intern, so the attorneys kinda liked to mess around with him.

"Keger," John Parker- attorney at law- called as he walked over to Kirby's small desk, "You up for another trial?"

Kirby nodded and tried to hide his anticipation. "Yeah, sure," he answered, trying to keep his composure, "What kind of trial?"

"Lawsuit. A girl and her ex had a fight that got physical. He hit her, more like punched her actually, and broke her nose. He also gave her a few cuts and bruises during the struggle."

His eyes widened for a moment and let out a low whistle. "Damn."

"Yeah, I know. She broke up with him after that. She's suing him for her hospital bill and, quote-unquote, pain and suffering."

"When is it?"

"Next Monday. So you up for it?"

Kirby nodded. "Yeah, sure. It sounds interesting."

John Parker let out a laugh. "It's definitely interesting, I can tell you that much," he laughed, "Alright, be here by 8:25 next Monday morning. We'll head over to the courthouse around 8:30."

-/-/-

Billy had been sent out to buy a few decorations for the bar to make it look more festive. Halloween had passed, causing Thanksgiving to come quickly, which made it seem like Christmas was just around the corner. He had been sent to get decorations for both holidays, and even a few decorations for Hanukkah- a holiday that was dedicated to the Maccabees and their acts to regain the Jewish temple from the Syrians which is celebrated by those of the religion of Judaism and sometimes Christians.

Billy paid the cab fare to the driver- which was about ten dollars- and walked out onto the sidewalk. He walked a few blocks through the crowded New York City sidewalk, only made more crowded by the upcoming holiday season. Tourists were everywhere, and by now, he was considered a local and became slightly annoyed with the tourists.

As Billy walked into the store and through the Christmas decorations section, he started to think about D. C. Wendy still lived close to Georgetown, and he had planned to go back to see her for the holidays. He wouldn't flat out tell her that he was coming back, it would be a surprise. He would ask her causally about what she'd be doing for Christmas and boom- there he was.

 _Thanksgiving is only two weeks away_ , he thought, _I better find out soon._

-/-/-

Ada opened the door to her bedroom and walked in, closing the door behind her. She had decided to live at home during college to save money since her college was only about ten to fifteen minutes away from where she lived. Not to mention it was her last year there, so it didn't matter at this point.

Ada tossed her bag and her jacket on the floor next to her bed as she fell back onto the bed, both arms spread out like wings. She bit down on the corner of her bottom lip as she started to smile. She couldn't stop thinking about her date in a few hours with Kevin. She moved her hand to her mouth as she toyed with her bottom lip using the tips of her fingers as she let out a chuckle.

"I can't believe how forward I was with him," Ada mumbled to herself as she chuckled.

Ada had never been a bold person, verbally at least. It was shocking, considering the family she came from. Her father had always been a very outspoken man and was very easy to make conversation with. Her mother was not very different from him in that sense. Her older brother Alex was very outgoing and very likeable and in high school, very popular. He was also very persuasive, which is how he had gotten his now fiancé to go out with him for the first time. Her younger brother Adam was also very likeable and very popular, which made him very bold and outspoken.

Ada was only like the members of her family when she was comfortable with a person or knew them well enough. She was shocked with how forward and outgoing she had been with Kevin, considering they had never met before, prior to that day. She silently hoped that her father didn't quite pick it up, and hoped that he was too excited about Kevin accepting the job position to notice her unusual actions.

Ada sat up on the edge of her bed. She ran a hand through her hair and walked over to her closet. She turned around when she heard a knock on her bedroom door and it opened a crack. She chuckled when she saw her mother poke her head through the door and the frame. "Hi, sweetheart," Anna Robertson smiled at her daughter, "Can I come in?"

Anna Robertson had been married to her husband- Jacob Robertson- for thirty years. They had gotten married when they were twenty-one years old and had just graduated from college. They were married six years before they had their first child, Alex. Three years after that, they had Ada. Four years after that, they had their third and last child, Adam. All through the years, Anna had managed to look ten years younger than her real age. Both her and her husband had also formed relationships with their three children so good, that the three were never ashamed or embarrassed when their parents came around when they were with their friends. She had also formed a very strong relationship with her daughter, that there was nothing that could break it and they could talk like friends.

"Of course you can, Mom," Ada chuckled, "What's up?"

Anna entered the room and sat down on her daughter's bed. "I heard you come home, so I just came up to say hi," she answered with a shrug.

Ada gave her mother a questioning look. "Are you sure that's _all?"_

Anna laughed. "Alright, I cave. Your father told me that you met that boy Kevin today."

"Yes, I did, why?"

"What do you think of him?"

"I think he's a hard worker and very dedicated to his writing-"

"Oh, come on. I was talking with your father and he said you opened up to him like that." She snapped her fingers to show the quickness. "You never do that, Ada."

Ada tried to hold back her smile. "Ok, ok," she laughed, "Maybe I kinda like him. He's very sweet. Very cute. And _very_ good looking. Especially his eyes."

"Ooh, he sounds like a dream, Ada," her mother chuckled, but not in a completely teasing way.

"He must be. I'm going out to dinner with him at Fusaro's tonight. He's coming to pick me up at 7:30."

Anna smiled brightly. "Can I help you get ready?" she begged.

Ada laughed. "I was hoping that you would."

 **First, I hope no one is offended by the thing with Kevin and being gay. I honestly see nothing offensive with how I worded that or said it, but if you are, I sincerely apologize for any offense taken by you as the reader.**

 **Two, I mentioned about Hanukkah, which is ironically taking place this week. It started this past Sunday night, tonight is the fourth night. I celebrate this holiday.**

 **Third, I apologize to the few readers of this story about the (what feels like to me) long update wait. I hope to update before Christmas, but no promises to my schedule.**

 **Fourth, the holidays in this story will still be taking place probably for a little while after the New Year so it is not a special holiday thing (sadly). The movies last holiday is Halloween so I'm going off of that.**

 **Anyway, to those who read this- Happy Hanukkah! Peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=**


	8. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant

_**-n-ties Modern-Striped-Tie-in-Light-Yellow-Baby-Blue-and-Navy. Html**_

-/-/-

Ada walked out from her personal bathroom that was in her room, using a towel to start to dry her hair before her mother did anything to it. She let the towel fall and wrap itself loosely around her shoulders and she tucked her hands into the pockets of her bathrobe. "So what're we gonna do with my hair, Mom?" she asked.

Anna led her daughter to the vanity and sat her down, making sure she could see both of their reflections clearly in the mirror. She started to play with strands and bunches of her daughter's hair. "First, we're gonna blow dry it," she answered, "Then we're gonna comb it out and brush it a bit."

Ada gave her mother a confused look. "That's it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you've always done big and extravagant."

"It _is_ the eighties, sweetheart."

Ada chuckled. "Yes, I know what decade it is."

"Are you saying then that you want big and extravagant hair?"

"No. I'm saying that I'm impressed by your sudden subtly and I love it."

Ada smiled proudly as she nodded and began to dry her daughter's hair.

-/-/-

After Ada's hair was finished, the two women of the house moved onto her clothes. The two went over to her closet and began to narrow down the options of clothing to whatever would be appropriate for Fusaro's, considering the restaurant was one of those places you had to dress nicely rather than casually. Granted, it wasn't quite "jacket required" but you couldn't really shop up in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.

After ten minutes of raiding her closet, the two women had both agreed on a dress that would be perfect. The dress reached down to the top of her knees. It had long sleeves that resembled lace, yet they reached the middle of her forearm. The neckline revealed nothing, which would comfort her brothers and father if they saw her in the dress, considering it slightly hugged her body- but not in a tight way. It hugged her perfectly that you could see her curves, but nothing else. It had slight shoulder pads and ruffled shoulders, but not too big, due to the recent fashion style. The color of the dress was a cranberry red, which fit perfectly for the season. Her boots had a slight heal and were faux black leather.

"You look wonderful, dear," Anna smiled as they looked at each other through her body length mirror.

-/-/-

"Good luck with Ada," Kirby said to his friend as the other drove off toward his date's house.

Kevin had put on a pair of khaki pants and a dark blue button up shirt for his date with Ada. Due to the restaurant setting, he also wore a cream colored tie that had simple blue stripes on it. He also wore a black fleece along with his jacket due to the chilly weather.

Kevin drove to the address on Ada's business card, which took about fifteen to twenty minutes. As he drove up to the house, his jaw dropped slightly. He was surprised at how large the house was- but it was average size to the houses in the surrounding area that he had noticed just then. _This is the richer area,_ he thought. He checked the glove compartment to make sure a few of his writings were in there like he had promised he would bring for Ada, cleared his throat, got out of the car, and made his way up the walkway and stairs to the front door of the house.

Kevin nervously rang to the doorbell of the house. As he waited, he shuffled his feet nervously. He looked up in alarm when he heard the door open and made sure he stopped his feet. When the door opened, a guy who looked to be in his twenties appeared in the doorway. There was a strong resemblance in his facial features to Mr. Robertson and Ada, showing that he was one of his boss' two sons.

"Can I help you?" he asked curiously.

Kevin slightly cleared his throat again out of nervousness. "Uh, yeah," he answered, "I'm here to see Ada."

"Really? Cause you don't sound too sure." His voice was teasing and he let out a laugh. "Don't worry, I'm just kidding. You must be Kevin. Ada told me a guy named Kevin would be coming around 7:30 tonight. Are you the same Kevin that works for my dad?"

"Yeah, that's me."

"Alright… well, I'm Ada's older brother Alex. Why don't you come in?"

Kevin hesitantly followed Alex inside of the house and into the living room. _This house just keeps getting bigger and bigger,_ he thought. He waited in the living room as Alex said he'd tell his sister that he was there.

-/-/-

Ada and her mother turned when they heard a knock on the door. "Ada?" they heard through the door in her brother Alex's voice, "Kevin's here. He's in the living room." Anna smiled at her daughter and ran out of the bedroom as Ada grabbed her cream colored pea coat from a rack on her bedroom wall along with her small shoulder bag.

By the time Ada got down the stairs and toward the living room, she saw her mother greeting Kevin in their living room. The two stood by the boxes that were filled with their family decorations for Christmas, along with the box that held their unassembled artificial tree.

When Ada walked into the door, Kevin looked at her. She started to feel nervous, thinking that maybe she had overdressed or that he just didn't like her appearance. When he started to smile his usual small smile at her, her nerves began to disappear and she tried to bite back her smile.

Anna cleared her throat. "Alright," she said, "We'll let you two get going. Have fun on your date."

-/-/-

Kevin opened the door of the passenger's side for Ada and closed it when she said to, making sure he didn't slam it shut. He then ran around the back end of the car to the driver's side and got in.

"Did my brother interrogate you?" Ada asked nervously.

Kevin let out a chuckle as he started toward the restaurant. "No, don't worry," he smiled, "But your mom said she liked my eyes."

She laughed and tucked a strand of her dirty blonde hair behind her ear. "She's always had a thing for eyes. I think that's one reason she's so attracted to my dad."

-/-/-

It took about fifteen minutes to drive to Fusaro's Italian Restaurant from the Robertson house. Kevin drove into the parking lot, stopped the car and got out from his seat. He ran around to the side before Ada could get out and he opened the door for her, which caused her cheeks to turn a bright shade of pink.

"I never got the chance to compliment how you look," Kevin said as they walked in, "So, you look really nice."

Ada smiled and tucked another loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Thanks," she smiled "You look really handsome."

Kevin felt bad that he didn't bring some sort of flower or something for her, but he also thought that it might've been inappropriate considering it was only their first date. If it were maybe a third, fourth or fifth date, that would've been different. By the time they had gotten to the table and were looking over a menu, he had tried to ignore the thought and hop she didn't mind… it didn't exactly help his situation that there were flowers nearly everywhere in sight in the restaurant.

Both while they were waiting for their food and while they ate their food, they talked. They talked about nearly anything and everything. Most of their conversation consisted of laughing, discussion movies and music and writing, even a bit of politics. Most of the politics discussion involved jokes and such, though- it wasn't a very serious part of their conversation.

-/-/-

When the two writers finished their meals, and it was only nine o'clock, they decided to walk through the park. The two got into the car and started towards the park.

"I just remembered," Ada said, "Did you bring any of your writings like you promised you would?"

Kevin chuckled. _That's what I brought for our first date,_ he thought. "Right in the glove compartment," he answered with a chuckle.

She let out a chuckle as well as she opened the glove compartment and took out the folded up papers. There was a total of ten papers in the glove compartment. She smiled and let out another chuckled as she started to unfold the papers. "Can I read them once we get to the park?" she asked.

He shrugged slightly. "I guess, if you want to. But I gotta ask you something: is it weird that it's kind of embarrassing when people you know read your writing?"

"No, it's not weird. I'm that way too. I think that's why I wanna publish a real book so much. It doesn't really feel weird when random people you don't know read your stuff. Does that make sense?"

"Makes sense to me, I can tell you that much."

"My dad would probably say that it makes sense, too. I still feel bad though that your parents don't' support you and your writing."

Kevin blew it off. "I don't mind. I've gotten real used to their way of thinking over the years," he answered nonchalantly as he parked his car in the municipal lot for the park.

Ada frowned. "How long have you had to 'get used to it'?" she asked as they got out of the car, making sure to bring the ten papers with her.

"I don't know. A couple years maybe."

"Years?"

Ada had to bite her tongue to prevent from saying anything that she might regret. She had a problem with that. Even though she didn't open up to people easily, once she did, she had a problem with knowing what to say and knowing what _not_ to say. For this situation, she didn't want to say anything that might offend him.

On the other hand, Ada found it hard to believe that a parent could not support their child's life choice. Now granted, she knew that there were _some_ things that a parent could not support, but being a writer? They thought it was a waste of time? _A lot of people think that, actually,_ she thought.

"You know what?" Kevin started, "Let's just forget I even mentioned it. It's not like they hate me or something."

Ada gave a small smile. "Alright fine," she answered, "But I'm still reading your stuff."

He chuckled. "Well, you still have the papers. Go ahead and read if you want."

-/-/-

Kevin stopped the car as he drove up against the curb in front of the Robertson house. Ada started to hand him back the papers with his writing. He shook his head, causing her to give a confused look. "You can keep them," he said.

"You sure?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure. That copy is actually just a copy. The original is in a shoebox in my room."

She chuckled. "Well, thank you. I loved them.

The two got out of the car and walked to the sidewalk. They continued up the walkway of the house and up to the stairs that led to the front porch. The two stopped at the door and looked at each other as Ada slightly hugged herself. "I enjoyed tonight," she smiled and silently thanked her lucky stars that it was dark out, so he couldn't see her pink cheeks.

Kevin nodded. "I did too," he said as his trademark small smile formed his lip shape, "I had such a good time that I was wondering if, maybe we could do this again sometime?"

"I'd like that too."

"Also, would it be wrong if I asked if I could kiss you goodnight?"

"Not if it's wrong that I was kinda hoping that you would."

The two leaned toward each other and shared a kiss that lasted six seconds. When they pulled away, Ada tried to bite back a smile while Kevin let his show and he let out an anxious chuckle. They both said goodnight as she started inside her house quietly and he started back toward his car. He turned when he heard her call his name from the door. "Kevin?"

He turned and looked at her. "Yeah?"

"Remember that I support you." She gave a small smile and went back inside the house.

 **To those reading this, hello, how are you? It seems like I will be updating every other week.**

 **Also, it is true about people not supporting writers and thinking it is a waste of time, trust me, I know. I'm always writing, and not just fanfiction. Actual books that I would like to get published. Not as many people support it as you might think.**

 **Also, I will not be updating until the new year so- Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope you all have a wonderful time! =^-^=**


	9. New York State Of Mind

" _Can you believe Alec and Leslie got back together?"_ Wendy said happily over the phone, _"I always thought those two would end up always together."_

Billy let out a laugh. "No offense, Wen," he chuckled, "But you sound like my fourteen year old sister gushing over some movie couple."

He heard her chuckle from the other line. _"I'm just happy for them, is that such a bad thing?"_

Billy and Wendy had managed to still keep in contact, just like they had said they would when he left for New York. They talked over the phone six out of seven days of the week, changing Sunday and Saturday progressively, depending on their schedules. This continued up to the present time, which happened to be the weekend right before Thanksgiving.

"No it's not a bad thing," Billy chuckled, "As long as you don't sound like my sister when she gushes over some new actor."

" _Depends on the actor,"_ Wendy said in a teasing voice.

Billy laughed. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask if you have plans for Christmas?"

" _Not yet. Believe it or not, my family is really doing anything. I was thinking of maybe having my own little thing."_

"So you're staying in D. C. for Christmas?"

" _Yeah, most likely. What about you? You gonna stay there in New York City or coming back home?"_

"I don't really know yet," Billy lied.

-/-/-

Alec and Leslie had gotten back together two weeks previous to the weekend before Thanksgiving. They hadn't moved back in together yet, due to the fact that they had only been back together for two weeks and at this point, they needed a little more time before they were back to the way they were around Halloween. When it was established that they'd be starting over, it really did mean _starting over._ It was almost like when they had first started going out again, only with a few differences than the majority of new couples.

The two had waited a week to tell their friends that they had gotten back together. When they did, they were a bit confused by the reaction of Jules, Kirby and Wendy. There was something a bit odd and not quite right about their reactions, but the two couldn't quite figure out what it was. It wasn't like it had been a bad reaction- in fact, they were happier than the two would've thought. That's the part that sort of confused them, especially about Kirby. They just decided to go along with their friends reactions and move along with their lives.

Alec and Leslie were sitting on the couch in the once shared apartment, watching a movie on the newly purchased VCR player. She was curled up against the left side of his body and torso, and his left arm held her tight by the shoulders and more into him. A fleece blanket was spread out over the lower halves of their bodies.

As the rented VHS version of _Annie Hall_ ended, Leslie adjusted her position slightly. "Hey Alec," she said in a slightly tired voice, "You awake?"

No answer.

She moved her head up slightly and glanced up a bit to see Alec's face- his eyes were shut. "Alec?" she repeated, holding in a laugh. When he stirred awake, she held in another laugh.

Alec used his opposite hand and ran it over his face in an attempt to wake himself up. "What time is it?" he asked and looked down at Leslie.

She held in another chuckle at his slight bedhead from the couch. "Near midnight. The movie's over."

"What movie was it again?"

" _Annie Hall."_

"Oh yeah, that one Kirby recommended. What'd you think of it?"

"I thought it was absolutely terrible."

Alec chuckled slightly. "You never were partial toward Woody Allen," he smiled.

"Is that so wrong?" she teased, causing the two of them to laugh.

The two threw the blanket to the other side of the couch and stretched. Leslie got up from her spot on the couch and folded the blanket in to a neat square while Alec walked to the VCR player and pulled out the rented VHS. He slid it back into its flimsy cardboard box cover and placed it on top of the television. After the blanket was folded up and the television was turned off, she placed the folded up blanket on the left arm of the couch.

"I meant to ask," Alec started, gaining her attention, "So you have plans for this Thursday?"

"Well, it _is_ gonna be Thanksgiving," Leslie answered with a slight shrug.

"Yeah, I know that, don't worry. I'm just curious if you have plans for it or not."

"Jules suggested we all go to some diner she found a few towns over that's open for twenty-four hours. But this was before Wendy had suggested that she might be going to New York to see Billy for Thanksgiving, or before Kevin started seeing someone."

"So if she decides to go to the diner, it'd be us, Kirby and Jules?"

"That would be correct."

"I was kinda hoping I could be cliché," Alec suggested while letting out an embarrassed chuckle- which was a rare thing.

Leslie gave him an odd look, but still had a small smile on her face. "What do you mean that you wanted to be cliché?" she asked.

"If you understand the reference, I was thinking maybe I could take you ice skating."

Leslie remembered how her and Alec had seen _Rocky III_ in theaters back in 1982 when they had first started going out. She hadn't seen the first two films of the franchise before they'd seen the third one together, but Alec had- as he was surprisingly a big fan of the series for nearly ten years when the first one had come out in 1976 when he was in junior high school. While they were going out still after he found out that she hadn't seen _Rocky_ or _Rocky II_ , they rented them and watched them. It then became an inside john between the two about going ice skating on Thanksgiving.

Leslie let out a laugh as she recalled their inside joke. "Maybe we could finally do that," she suggested with a smile.

-/-/-

The next morning, Kevin woke up to the sound of the phone ringing. He debated whether or not he should let it ring or enjoy the half hour of sleep he had left before he got up to get ready for work. His question was answered when he saw Kirby come in to the room and answered the phone. _Thank you,_ he thought and fell back tiredly, letting his head land on his pillow.

"Kevin, it's for you," Kirby said in a tired voice.

Rather than moving for possibly no reason, Kevin opted for the easy way out. "Who is it?" he mumbled.

"A girl. Says her name is Ada."

Kevin jumped up when his friend said the name _Ada._ He threw the blanket off of his bed and practically ran over to the phone. He took the phone from his friend, despite the confused look created on his friend's face as he did. He raised the phone to the side of his head. "Hello?" he said.

" _Hey Kevin, its Ada,_ " came from the other end in Ada Robertson's voice, _"Did I wake you?"_

"Hey Ada," he greeted, "And don't worry, you didn't wake me. So what's up?" He knew that was a lie, but he didn't want her to feel bad.

" _Ok great. And I was wondering, well, my mom and dad were curious too, if you wanted to join us all for the day."_

"What're you guys all doing?"

" _We're having an engagement party for my older brother and his fiancé. Like I said, my parents would be happy if you could come."_

Kevin smirked a bit to himself. "Well, what would you think about me joining you and your family?"

He heard Ada laughed from her end of the phone. _"At the risk of being forward,_ " she said, _"I'd love it if you were able to come."_

"I'm starting to think that's part of the reason your dad gave the two of us the entire week off."

" _Slightly, actually. Also cause of how hard we've been working with the newspaper and the magazine. Either way, are you gonna come to the engagement party later?"_

"Yeah, sure. It sounds fun. Where is it?"

" _My house. My parents prefer everyone get there around three-thirty, cause Alex and his fiancé are coming around four."_

"It's a surprise party, isn't it?"

" _Yeah, it is,"_ Ada chuckled, _"But you're gonna come?"_

"Yeah, I'll come. I'll see you at three-thirty," Kevin said and they both hung up.

-/-/-

Kirby watched curiously as his roommate spoke on the phone with a girl who had said her name was Ada. He knew his friend had been seeing someone for the last couple of weeks and since the first week he had been working at the magazine. There wasn't a lot that Kevin had said about the person he'd been seeing, though. And none of them had actually met the girl, either.

Kirby had noticed a change in Kevin lately- and now he was guessing that it was because of this girl Ada. Jules, Wendy, Alec and Leslie had all noticed it too. They had all agreed that he was changing for the better: he was more optimistic than usual and he had started to enjoy more things- and not just enjoying being afraid of Russia due to the current Cold War going on.

-/-/-

Wendy decided that she'd be going to New York City for Thanksgiving. She had discussed it with Billy, and he- reluctantly- agreed with her decision. It's not that he didn't want to see her, but she had never been to New York City before, and once the holidays rolled around, the city got packed with tourists and dangerous people- more so than usual. But she had said she didn't mind. It was then agreed that he would still give a little "tour" of the city, but he'd be watching her like a hawk since she'd never been there and he didn't want anything to happen to her.

It was also established between the two that Wendy would be staying with Billy in his apartment. He had warned her that the apartment wasn't very big and that it wasn't necessarily _great,_ but it wasn't a _terrible_ apartment either.

It was better than most places she could be staying at in the city, if you stayed in a decently priced hotel.

As Wendy got ready for the day, he radio could be heard throughout the apartment. Coincidental to her thoughts about her plans for Thanksgiving to go to New York City, _New York State of Mind_ by Billy Joel began to play on the radio. She smiled to herself about the irony of the song connection to her plans, and continued to get ready for work.

 **Hello there to those who read this, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!**

 **Yes, I included the Rocky series here. That was my first ever "fandom", and it was popular at the time, especially since this story still takes place in 1985, and** _ **Rocky IV**_ **would be coming out the same year. And the Cold War was incorporated, because it was happening at the time, even though it was pretty much passive-aggressive since Russia knew that if they bombed or hit us we'd do it back, and it was the same for us with bombing or hitting Russia. (Thank you, Ronald Reagan for settling the Cold War.)**

 **So yeah, hope you liked this chapter, peace from all the hippies of the world. =^-^=**


	10. Cars

"So is he going to come?" Anna asked with a smile.

Ada placed the handset of the phone back on the dial of the rotary phone. "Yes," she answered and let out a chuckle, "He said he'll come."

Her mother's smile grew then she calmed down a bit, but a small smile was still present on her face. "You know, I've never seen you as happy as you have been in any of your previous relationships. Or so outspoken, either."

"I know, Mom. You've said it five times in the last two weeks."

"Well, cause it's true. Even your brothers kinda like him, and they never liked _anyone_ you ever went out with."

"To be fair, I've only had two boyfriends in my entire life. Granted, one cheated on me, but that's not the point."

Alex and Adam Robertson had promised at a young age that they'd always protect their only sister whenever their parents couldn't. This promise had never been broken. Every time Ada had ever gone out on a date, the two kept a close eye on the guy- that's how Ada found out her one ex-boyfriend had been cheating on her. And even though Adam was younger than her, that didn't make any difference in any situation. Because of their protective behavior, she had always teased them by calling them her own "personal bodyguards".

Anna rolled her eyes a bit. "Well, that's exactly _my_ point," she said a bit gently, "Sweetheart, your ex-boyfriend who cheated on you was from five years ago. Ever since then, the only men you've ever trusted was your father, your brothers, other guys in the family- and Kevin."

"It's not that I don't trust men," Ada said with a slight shrug, "It's just that, I never really payed attention to guys in high school or college cause I just wanted to pass and get it all over and done with."

"Well, even if you didn't pay attention to them, they sure did pay attention to you."

"I'm sorry, Mom, but can we just end this discussion? I gotta get ready for the party and help get things ready."

Anna nodded a bit. "Fine… either way, as long as Kevin's coming, we're fine."

-/-/-

Leslie walked through the revolving door of the hospital- even though she was twenty-two years old, using the revolving door instead of the regular one would always be her inner child- and toward the elevator. As she waited for the doors of the elevator to open, she tucked her thin leather briefcase under her arm and began to undo the buttons of her coat. When the elevator bell rang, signaling that it had arrived, she took her bag from under her arm and walked in to the elevator and pressed the button for the floor she had to go to, the fifth floor.

Before the doors closed, Leslie cut her arm in between them to stop them from closing and to reopen when she heard someone calling her name. Her friend and co-worker, Natalie, then rushed into the elevator next to her. Her friend used her arm to support herself by leaning it against one of the four walls and let out a relieved breath as the doors closed once again.

When Leslie had starting working at the hospital, she'd started as a Medical Biller. A few months after she had started, Natalie was hired for the same job. As Leslie helped to train Natalie for her new position, she was promoted to Medical Office Manager, which was quite a feat, considering she hadn't been working there all that long.

Natalie let out a breath. "Thanks Leslie," she said in a tired and labored breath.

Leslie smiled. "No problem," she said, "So I guess you're morning's not going so great?"

"My bus ran late, so I just barely made it her."

"Look, I know you can't afford to _buy_ your own car, but can't you at least _rent_ one."

"I've been considering it, trust me," Natalie chuckled, "But my friend's mom is selling her old car for a good price. I told her I was interested."

The elevator bell rang and the doors opened. The two girls walked out, letting those who'd been waiting for it inside, and started down the hall to their stations. As the two walked, the continued the conversation about Natalie's possibility of buying the used car that had belonged to her friend's mother.

"Oh, speaking of cars," Natalie started.

Leslie gave a slightly confused look. "Ok…" she said skeptically.

"I've been saying a very familiar car come for you a few times in the last two weeks. Anything I should know about?" A smirk found its way to her face.

Leslie let out a chuckle. "Uh, yeah, I guess so."

"I'm guessing you're back together with Alec?"

"For as long as you've been seeing the familiar car. Yeah, I'm back together with Alec."

"That's great! Are you two gonna celebrate Thanksgiving together?"

"Yeah, we plan on going ice skating this Thursday."

Natalie gave a confused look at her friend. "You two are going ice skating? I don't understand."

"It's an inside joke," Leslie chuckled.

-/-/-

Kirby sat at his small desk, going over his practice test book for the LSAT. He had registered to take the test in the beginning of the new year, which meant that he had a little over a month left to study for the test. He'd already been studying for about a month and a half, so it's not like he had just been goofing off about the whole thing.

As he went over the questions, he heard the front door of the law office open. He looked up and saw a young girl who looked to be about three of four years old. Behind the young girl- who had taken off her coat and was playing with a large bandage wrapped around her left arm- a woman who looked to be about his own age walked into; his only guess was that the woman was the girl's mother. The woman then leaned down to scold the little about playing with the bandage, which made her stop like she'd been told to do.

Kirby was about to greet the two but stopped himself when his boss- John Parker- entered the vicinity and came to greet the two himself. The woman smiled at his boss and the two greeted each other with a hug. _I thought he wasn't married,_ Kirby thought, confused. His boss then leaned down over to the little girl, who giggled and smiled at something he had said. He picked up the little girl and the three started to one of the back offices.

On their way, John stopped at Kirby's desk. "Keger," the attorney said, "This is my younger sister, Emily, and her daughter- my niece- Elizabeth." He then looked over at his sister. "Em, this is our intern and apprentice, Kirby Keger."

Kirby stood up from his seat and held out his hand, which Emily accepted with a small smile. "It's very nice to meet you," he greeted then smiled gently at the little girl, "And very nice to meet you too."

Elizabeth smiled. "I'm this much," she said proudly and held up four fingers.

"Yes you are, Lizzie," Emily said in a happy and bubbly tone, "Very good, sweetheart."

John spoke up. "You'll be seeing these two around here quite a lot, Keger."

Kirby gave a slightly confused look. "Everything alright?"

Emily shrugged a bit. "I was in a car accident a little while back. The jerk who hit my car caused Elizabeth to get cut on the arm with a piece of glass, which she needed ten stitches for, so I'm suing the moron for the accident and my daughter's hospital bill."

"Other than that, were you two alright?"

"Well, we're fine now. When it happened, I couldn't stop shaking for a week. But since the glass cut Elizabeth and, like I said, she needed stitches. I can't really pay for all the damage and repair bills for my car and her hospital bill without getting into debt at the moment, so that's why I'm suing him. It's not easy, especially only being twenty-three with a four year old."

"Well, what about your husband? Elizabeth's father, I mean."

Emily let out an embarrassed chuckle. "That's uh," she started, "It's just a really long and complicated story."

"She's not married, father ain't around," John whispered quickly to Kirby, cleared his throat and looked back at his sister, "So, should we get this lawsuit started?"

Emily nodded at her brother then looked back at Kirby with a smile. "It was nice to meet you, Kirby. And I hope I see you again very soon."

"Same to you," Kirby smiled as the three walked to the back office.

Kirby watched as his boss walked back to his office with his sister and his niece, Emily and Elizabeth. He started to wonder then about Emily. He did think she was pretty, _very_ pretty actually. On the other hand, he felt bad about the scenario she had told him about, especially since- according to his boss- Elizabeth's father was not in the picture and Emily was not married. _She said she's twenty-three,_ he thought, _then she would've only been nineteen years old when Elizabeth was born._

There was no debating against the fact that Emily was Elizabeth's mother. With the exception of the fact that the two girls had came into the building together, the two were spitting images of each other. They both had big brown eyes, light brown wavy hair, and the little girl's face looked like the child's version of the woman- who was only a year older than Kirby. Not to mention, that John had said the Elizabeth was his niece and Emily was his sister, and he had said before that he only had one sibling.

Emily and Elizabeth entered the front of the building about an hour later. Emily leaned down to her knees and helped the little girl gingerly put on her jacket, then stood up and slipped her arms into her own jacket. She took the little girl in her arms and lifted her off the ground and the two said goodbye to the head attorney in the office. She then made sure to stop by Kirby on her way out. "I really do hope I see you next time I come," she smiled.

Kirby looked up at her and smiled back. "I think you will," he said with a smile.

Emily let out a chuckle as she nodded before saying "goodbye" then leaving the building.

"You like my sister," John Parker said with a smirk, "Don't you, Keger?"

"Am I fired if I say yes?" Kirby asked nervously.

The slightly older of the two looked down a bit as he laughed. "Don't worry, you won't be if you say yes."

"Then, yeah, kinda. I do like her."

"Good."

" _Good?_ Why do you say that?"

"Cause she likes you too, that's why."

 **Hello to those reading this.**

 **I don't know what I put in my last author's not for this story, but if I put that I was going to Alice's Teacup for my best friend's birthday, we had to take a rain check- literally. We may be going this Sunday instead, but now it's supposed to snow, so we have no idea. Plus my mom's birthday was January 15, so we all went to NYC.**

 **Anyway, I'll be starting another new story soon, so five at once- wish me luck. It's gonna be for** _ **The Expendables**_ **trilogy (so far, a trilogy, there's rumors about a fourth one coming up). So yeah.**

 **Also- Rest in Peace, David Bowie. I've heard your music nearly all my life and it's hard to believe you're gone. I remember imitating the word Fame in "Fame" with my mom ever since I was three or four years old, years before I would become a fan of yours. And always love seeing the quote at the beginning of** _ **The Breakfast Club**_ **from "Changes". You are missed by many different age groups, and have affected us all.**

 **Alright, for those reading, peace from all the hippies of the world. =^-^=**


	11. Bad Case Of Lovin' You

Kevin walked up to the Robertson house. He wore a nicer pair of blue jeans, a beige polo shirt, his light fleece jacket a pair of shoes that resembled loafers. Of course, he also had a slightly heavier jacket over due to the cold air November air. When he got to the front door, he looked down at his watch- which said 3:45pm- then knocked on the door. _I hope it's ok that I'm a little later than they said I should be here_ , he thought a bit nervously. He shoved his hands in his pockets after he knocked on the door three times.

When the door began to open, Kevin immediately took his hands from out of his pockets. When the door had completely opened, a Dalmatian ran out and jumped up on its hind legs and jumping on him, only reaching his waist, barking. The dog jumped back and down on the porch and stopped barking when a "Banzai! Down, now!" was heard from inside the house. The black spotted dog ducked its head down, let out a whimper and stalked over to the edge of the porch.

Anna Robertson appeared in the doorway a moment later. "Sorry about him," she chuckled, "We're still trying to train him. We've got the basics down at least."

Kevin let out a chuckle. "Well, it seems you're doing a pretty good job already," he said, "Considering he knows to listen to specific commands."

The older woman smiled. "Aw, thank you, Kevin. Come on in, you're right on time."

He followed her inside. "But I'm fifteen minutes later than Ada said I should come."

"Trust me, as long as you got here before my son and his fiancé, you're fine."

Kevin let out another chuckle as the older woman closed the door after they both were inside the house. She led him to the kitchen after he agreed to help her with whatever she need help with. When they got there, he had to keep his mouth from gaping open at the size of the room that seemed to be the same exact size- if not bigger- than his whole apartment. _This house just keeps getting bigger and bigger,_ he thought.

"Ok," Anna started, "I was going to have Ada help me with this, but she's still getting ready. Do you know how to properly frost a cake?"

Kevin shook his head. "You'd think I would with two sisters," he joked.

She let out a chuckle. "Well, then, you're about to learn from the master."

Before either of the two could say another word, Ada walked into the doorway of the room. She was wearing a dark gray, near black pencil skirt that was a little above her knees. She wore a purple and black striped button up shirt, the edges tucked into her skirt and the sleeves rolled up twice on the already shirt sleeve shirt. Her long dirty blonde hair had been tied back into a simple ponytail.

When Ada's eyes landed on Kevin, she began to smile and he did the same. "I, uh," she chuckled nervously, "I didn't know you were here already."

Kevin let out his own nervous chuckle. "Yeah," he said, "Uh, your mom let me in. I just got here."

"I was just about to teach him how to properly frost a cake while everyone's waiting for Alex and Dawn," Anna said, then smirked, "But, Ada, you know how. Why don't you teach Kevin?"

Before either Kevin or Ada could protest against her suggestion- it's not like they would've anyway- the young couple with a budding romance were together at the kitchen island. Anna had already had everything they would need set up. The older woman left the room in search of any possible "finishing touches" jobs around the house, a small smile on her lips as she left.

"She means well," Ada informed him with a small smile, "She's just very persistent sometimes."

"I can see that," Kevin chuckled a bit, which caused Ada's full smile to show.

-/-/-

Leslie walked down the hallway of the hospital corridor where all the offices of the administrators and managers who were not medical doctors were. At the end of the hallway was her won office, surrounded by the offices of fellow co-workers, all of the same position of Medical Office Manager.

The office supplies and electronics of the hospital managers and administrators were very modern and updated. In each office was a fax machine, a phone and an answering machine to go with it, and a computer with whatever the latest software was. Everything that was documented was put into the computer system by the office manager or administrator, as well as being written down in files and books. The reason for documentation in both was because if something ever happened to the computer and all the files were lost, they would be written down and nothing would technically be lost; those who did these jobs always had to handwrite in their books and files first before documenting the information in the computer just in case something happened. With all of this, there was always more than one copy.

When Leslie arrived in her office, she set down the file she'd needed. Since she partly managed the "women and children" part of the hospital, that's where she'd gone to get the file she needed of a girl named Elizabeth Parker, who was four years old. As she read through the file, she saw that Elizabeth's mother- Emily- was a single mother and that she was having problems paying the hospital bill. As she continued to read the file, she saw the Emily was suing a man for the price of the hospital bill and a bit more since he daughter sustained injuries in a car accident, causing the girl to need stitches. "The poor girl," she mumbled softly to herself.

Just as Leslie was about to get up from her seat and leave her office, the phone began to ring. "Hello, this is Leslie Hunter at the Georgetown University Hospital Center. How can I help you?" she asked when she answered the phone.

" _Yes, um, I've got a bad case of lovin' you_ ," she heard in Alec's terrible impersonation of the singer of the song he was quoting, and a slight laugh coming through.

Leslie held in a laugh. "Would you hold a moment please?" Before he answered, she got up from her seat and closed the door of her office, then went back to the phone.

" _Leslie? You still there?"_ Alec asked, now back to his regular voice.

"Now I can talk, Robert Palmer," she teased, "What's going on?"

" _My co-workers are working on something and told me I'm not needed at the moment and to take a small break."_

"So to kill time you decided to call me?"

" _That is correct. Now back to your previous statement, do you have a problem with Robert Palmer?"_ he asked in a teasing voice.

Leslie chuckled again. "No, I don't," she answered, "But I can't really stay on the phone and listen to you try and imitate him even though I'd like to."

" _Alright then, I guess I'll let you go. You're still coming over tonight right?"_

"Yeah, I am. I'll see you later tonight, Alec."

" _Alright, see you later,"_ he said and the line went dead.

Leslie hung up the phone then left her office to go in search of more information about Emily and Elizabeth Parker.

-/-/-

Wendy finished packing her last bag and zipped it shut. She set the smaller bag on the floor next to her suitcase, which was placed next to her bed. The larger suitcase held her clothes- pants, skirts, shirts, and pajamas. A smaller compartment inside the lid of the suitcase held her more _private_ articles of clothing. In the small carry-on bag were items that were a bit more personal and smaller in size.

Wendy would be leaving for New York City the next day, which was two before Thanksgiving- Tuesday. She would be in New York City from Tuesday evening to Saturday afternoon before taking the train back to Washington DC. She would be leaving for New York City the next day during the afternoon. It would've taken four to five hours by bus, but Billy suggested that she take a train if she could afford it instead cause "there are some real creeps that come on and off that bus in a four or five hour period, trust me."

As Wendy thought about being in New York with Billy for Thanksgiving, she put on her coat and left her apartment to buy herself a round trip ticket for New York City, leaving Tuesday afternoon and coming back Saturday afternoon.

-/-/-

"So, that girl you like is stayin' here with you a couple days?" Justin- Billy's boss- asked curiously.

Billy nodded. "Yeah," he answered, "She's only gonna be here for four to five days and it didn't make sense for her stay anywhere else since she's never been here before."

"As long as both of your fit in there while she's visiting, go right ahead." The older man let out a laugh. "While she's here, though, you gotta introduce us. With how much you talk about this girl, I'd like to meet her myself."

"Yeah, course. I think you'd like her."

"If she's anything like you say she is, then I know I'll like her."

If Billy was being honest with himself, he couldn't wait until Wendy got to New York. When she arrived the next day, he would be at the train station to pick her up. She would be calling him at some point during the day to tell him when her train was supposed to come in so he could be there ready to pick her up, also what station.

Billy's boss had given him the time off so he "could play tourist" with Wendy while she was visiting, even a slight list of places he should take her before she left. Along with these, he'd be taking her places on his own that he went to when he first got to New York.

Billy was brought from his thoughts when he heard the phone start to ring. He was about to speak into the phone but stopped. _"I got my train ticket,"_ he heard in Wendy's excited and happy tone of voice. He couldn't help but smile to himself due to the obvious excitement in her voice.

 **I won't be updating before Valentine's Day and Galentine's Day (if you watch "Parks and Recreation", you know what that is) so- HAPPY GALENTINE'S DAY AND HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!**

 **By the way, Georgetown University Hospital Center is real- I looked it up and found it.**

 **Anyway, I have nothing to say- so hope you enjoyed the chapter and peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=**


	12. Too Shy

" _Surprise!"_

A small smile formed on Kevin's face as that word could be heard from all around him. His focus then moved over to the girl next to him, Ada. _You haven't asked her if you two could go steady yet,_ his conscious scolded, _ask her tonight._ His heart began to beat faster in his chest at the thought, but he knew it was just out of nervousness that as much as her answer could be _yes_ , her answer for him when he asked could also be a _no._

Kevin was taken from his thought when he felt something on his hand- more around his hand. He looked down and saw another hand wrapped around his own, then traced the hand to the arm it was connected to. As he did that, he traced the arm up to find out who it was and he wasn't surprised that he had traced it back to Ada. When he looked at her, she had a small yet nervous smile on her face. "Hey," he said gently, "You ok?"

Ada nodded a bit. "Yeah, I'm fine," she answered, "Do you think we could go outside for a minute?"

"Yeah, sure." He slipped on his light jacket, helped Ada with her own, then followed her through the kitchen and out the screen door that led to the back porch. "Is there something wrong?"

"Technically, yes and no. I just got anxious, that's all."

"If I can ask, what were you anxious about?"

She let out a slight sigh. "Believe it or not, I'm actually really shy around most people I've never met before. And pretty all the people that were invited to my brother and his fiancés engagement party are people he works with or that she works with and knows, aside from family from both sides. I just got overwhelmed cause they're all in my house."

"Then how come you weren't so shy with me at all? Hell, _you_ pretty asked _me_ out," he said with a slight chuckle to cheer her up.

"I know," she chuckled, "and in all honesty, I don't really know why I was so bold with you that day. Cause I've never been that bold with people I've just met for the first time."

"So then, you're like a Chihuahua?" His voice was teasing.

She let out a laugh. "Ha-ha, very funny, Kevin."

 _Now's the time to ask her,_ Kevin's conscious said. "Um," he started, "Look, I wanna ask you something before we go back inside."

"Alright," Ada nodded, "What is it?"

"I was wondering if… if maybe we could start going steady? Like, you're my girlfriend and I'm your boyfriend."

"I would love to start going steady with you."

-/-/-

Leslie continued to look over the file that was labeled _Elizabeth Amelia Parker_. She looked over the little girl's health information, her family relationships, health history, everything that the file provided. She had found more information about the lawsuit, but for certain things in the file, she had to call the lawyer himself to get more information about the whole thing.

Leslie had called the number that was in the file for the law office handling the case. When someone had answered, it was a lawyer named John Parker, who happened to be Elizabeth's uncle. He said he would stop by her office at the hospital to discuss the payment and lawsuit details of the case, just to clear everything up.

As Leslie was documenting other files in her books and cabinets, a knock came from the opposite side of her closed door. "Come in," she called in response to the knocking. The large wooden door then creaked open and a man in a grey suit walked into the office. She closed her book and stood up from her chair. "Hello, are you John Parker?" she asked the slightly older man curiously.

The man nodded. "Yes, I am," he answered.

She held out her hand in greeting, which he took, and gave a small smile. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Parker. My name is Leslie Hunter." The two sat down.

"I understand you have questions regarding my niece Elizabeth's case?"

"Yes, that's right. I only have a couple questions so this shouldn't take all that long at all. My first question is when was the sue filed?"

"Two weeks ago. We got to court starting next week."

"Alright. How long do you think the case and the lawsuit trial will last?"

"It should probably take another week or two before the trials and paperwork are all done and over with. Three to four weeks at most, I'd say."

Leslie continued to write these things down. "If you do not win the case, how you think payments would work out for Emily and Elizabeth?"

"I honestly don't think that'll be the case," John Parker laughed, "But it'd probably take as long as any other payment, plus I'd be helping out Emily with the payments since she is my younger sister."

"One last question," she said, "Is there anything that I can possibly do to help you and your sister win this case?"

The lawyer smile and nodded at the younger yet eager woman sitting across from him, who smiled at his response to her question.

-/-/-

Jules had been a bit perkier lately. It wasn't "just because", it was for the simple fact that her plan was working- and she wasn't even doing anything! The whole time, she kind of just sat back and watched as Alec and Leslie got back together on their own and the same thing went for Billy and Wendy- and he wasn't even the state, which made it even harder. Yet somehow, long distance was working out for the two quite nicely, somehow.

Jules had also heard from Kirby that Kevin had started to see someone. He said that he was pretty sure that her name was Ada, but he'd never actually seen in her person yet. This seemed sort of odd to all of them, considering Kevin had claimed multiple times that he was gay and had an attraction to Alec.

Although, that was before Kevin had confessed his love to Leslie and the two slept together.

But that was the past, and the three had all moved on from that event in time.

Jules had continued to do the math for a specific sale that had taken place at the store. The sale was from a group of about ten women for a wedding. Of the ten women, five of them- who she found out were the bridesmaids- bought the same dress but in different sizes to fit them all individually. One of the women bought a similar dress, yet it was a bit different from the other five- which kinda proved that this woman was the maid of honor. Then the three older women who came- who were the bride's mother and two grandmother's- all chose a dress of their own to wear to the wedding.

Jules had only had a little bit of help from another co-worker on the sale, but only cause they were trying to get the dress sizes right for the first five women all at one time. Since she was the person who did the sale, she was the one who had to write out the bill and everything else about it. Considering how the day passed on, arguing back and forth about how a color did or didn't work for the wedding or how the design was too flashy or not flashy enough- doing up the bill was a nice change of pace, even for her.

Not to mention how she had to go to the wedding to help with the dresses that day.

Jules looked up when she heard her name. "Hey, Jules," her co-worker- Donna- called as she walked up to where Jules was.

"Yeah, Donna?" Jules asked, looking up from her notepad and calculator.

"Miranda and I were gonna go out to a dance club tonight, meet up with some friends. Do you wanna come with us?"

"What's the place called?"

"The Bangkok."

Jules chuckled a bit. "Ok, this may sound racist or whatever, but that's kind of a weird name for a dance club."

"Yeah, I know," Donna laughed, "But it's supposed to be really nice. So are you gonna come with us?"

She thought a moment before shrugging. "Yeah, sure," she answered.

"Great! We'll pick you up at your apartment building around eight tonight."

-/-/-

Kevin and Ada sat in the kitchen, talking. Since she wasn't completely comfortable with so many people she didn't know in her house, they decided to stay in the kitchen. It was just the two of them since all the food was placed along a fold up table in the living room. She had felt slightly bad that they were in the kitchen when he probably wanted to be out socializing with people. His answer was simply, "I don't mind at all. I'm actually pretty bad at being social, myself." His answer had made her laugh, which eased her nerves.

Right outside the doorway of the kitchen, Jacob and Anna Robertson peaked around the corner of the wall, then walked away. The two walked outside onto the front porch and sat down on the bench swing. As the older married couple walked, they both discussed how they were thankful that they had gone unnoticed by both their daughter and her love interest.

"You know," Anna said, leaning her head on her husband's shoulder, "She really likes Kevin a lot."

Jacob wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulders. "Yeah, I know," he answered shortly.

"I heard him ask her before if they could start going steady and she said yes."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah… I know those two just started going out but I have a good feeling about them."

"I do too, just for the fact that Ada was so outspoken with him when they first met. You should've seen it, Anna. I was so in shock when she met him. I just kept thinking, 'is this my daughter?' It was just so out of character for her, you know what I'm saying?"

Anna laughed. "I'm pretty excited to see how things work out for the two of them."

"Butt out of her love life," Jacob teased and kissed his wife's forehead.

 **Update. Update. Update. Update. Update. It's that time of the two weeks (I update all my stories every other week from Wednesday, Thursday and Friday- it's on my calendar.)**

 **Hope everyone had a wonderful Galentine's Day (if you don't watch Parks and Recreation, you probably have no idea what that is. Simply go online and look it up, and you will find what it is) and a great Valentine's Day, even if you are single (if you are, as of 2-17-2016, I understand cause I've never had a boyfriend and my crush had to move out of state with his family, but anyhow).**

 **Oh also, just for a laugh- go on youtube and search "north and south book 1 – orry and brett in the study" and if you don't want to watch the whole video, skip to 4:10 and watch up to 4:15. That's the funny part, not everything else in that scene, only 4:10 to 4:15 is funny even though the whole scene is supposed to be dramatic. You will be laughing your head off at those five seconds, I promise.**

 **I can't think of anything else to say, so hope you enjoyed the chapter, and peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=**


	13. One Night In Bangkok

"Do you think Jack Nicholson will be better in _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_ than he was in _The Shining?_ " Alec asked.

Leslie shrugged a bit. "I don't know," she answered, "I've only seen him in _The Shining_. But realize, he did win an Academy Award for _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_."

"What about _The Shining?_ "

"He wasn't nominated for anything for that."

Alec and Leslie would watch a movie neither of them had ever seen once a week. Since both of them had a love for movies, it was a perfect "date night". It only made sense since they were both at their jobs all day, and they liked to just sit and enjoy each other's company- and watching a movie was the perfect way for those two to make sure they did just that.

"Wendy said the movie can get kinda creepy at time," Leslie said as she sat down on the couch.

Alec slipped the VHS into the VCR machine then clicked play. "That's why I'm here, Les," he said as he sat down next to her on the couch.

Leslie let out a chuckle. "You're so cheesy."

A small smirk found its way to Alec's face. "I repeat: that's why I'm here, Les."

-/-/-

Kevin and Ada had eventually moved out of the kitchen and to the living room. The two sat on the loveseat closest to the now assembled artificial Christmas tree surrounded by boxes of tree lights and ornaments. He older brother Alex and his fiancé- Dawn Jackson- had joined the two in conversation at some point.

Alex and Dawn would receive judgmental looks sometimes when they walked through town, but at the same time, they would receive proud looks from others. The reason they figured this was because she was African American, while he was Scottish/Irish/American. Sure, some might call it a bit of an "odd" racial mix, but why should that matter? Since when did race still matter in a relationship? Why should it?

When both the Robertson and the Jackson family found out about the engagement, they couldn't have been more thrilled about the news. But, unfortunately, both Alex and Dawn knew people who they'd both known all their lives that had a "problem" with the engagement and the relationship. Anyone who didn't approve of the engagement eventually cut themselves off from any communication from the families, but no one seemed to mind them cutting themselves off. It's not like that would affect whether or not they would still be getting married.

At that point, with the people who eventually cut themselves, Alex and Dawn began to think of the 1967 film _Guess Who's Coming to Dinner_.

"So you're a writer, too?" Alex asked the guy sitting next to his sister.

Kevin nodded. "Yeah, I am," he answered, "I've been working for your dad for about six months."

"First time you came here for Ada, I never expected the guy who wrote _What's the Meaning of Life?_ in the paper and the guy who my dad always bragged about working for him to end up being the guy my baby sister would end up going out with."

Dawn's eyes widened for a moment. "Wait, you're the guy who wrote that article in the paper a few weeks back?" she asked.

Kevin nodded again. "Yeah, that was me."

Dawn smiled. "I read that, it was so great! I loved it. How did you think of what to write for it? I mean, I'm no writer, but it seems like it would have been a hard concept to write for."

Kevin wasn't really sure how to answer that question. He couldn't say that he wrote it the day after he had slept with Leslie- especially not with Ada sitting right next to him. Sure, it happened before he even met her, but that didn't change the fact that it wasn't the right time to bring up a previous one night stand with a close friend of his- especially not after just starting a new relationship with someone.

Kevin shrugged. "Just hit me one night, I guess," he answered with a slightly nervous chuckle.

-/-/-

"How's this look?" Jules asked, "Do I look alright in this?"

Jules was wearing a dress that was both pink and black. It had thin, "spaghetti" like straps holding it up. The neckline was in the shape of the top of a heat. At the waist, there were four slight ruffles layered one over the other, the last one ending just above her knees. The four ruffle color patterns were- from top to bottom- black, pink, black, pink. The top half of the dress was the same color pink. She also had on a pair of black heels to match, and her hair was done up with about one-fourth of a bottle of hairspray.

Wendy looked over her friend's appearance before nodding in approval. "Looks good," she answered, "You know, for going to a night club."

Jules chuckled a bit. "Yeah," she said, "Hey, why don't you come with us tonight?"

" _Oh_ , uh… no, I don't think-"

"Come on, Wen. It'll be fun."

"No thanks, Jules. I really appreciate your offer, but I'm not big on clubs. Besides, I have to get some sleep since I'm taking the train to New York City tomorrow to spend the week with Billy, remember?"

"That's a reasonable excuse not to go," Jules chuckled, "So, you excited to finally see Billy again?"

Wendy's cheeks turned pink as she smiled. "Yeah," she answered with a nod, "Yeah, I really am."

"Do you love him?"

"Yeah, I do."

"More than Howie?" Jules teased.

Wendy laughed as she nodded. " _Way_ more than Howie, I promise you that."

"That's all that matters."

As the two girls talked, they heard a car horn from outside the building. At first the girls thought nothing of it and continued to talk, until the horn made a patter with its sound. Jules realized it was Miranda and Donna, and said she had to go. Wendy left as well and went back home to her own apartment as Jules got into her co-workers' car.

"To the Bangkok," Donna said with a smile before the three drove off.

-/-/-

Jules, Miranda and Donna walked into the Bangkok around 8:15pm. As soon as they walked into the building, _Rock the Casbah_ by the Clash was playing throughout the club's sound system. There was a mixture of smells throughout the air which consisted of multiple mixed alcoholic drinks, ingredients for the drinks, food, sweat, cologne and perfume. The place was filled with couples and small groups of people that were scattered all over the place, yet somehow, the place was still mildly crowded.

The three girls walked over the bar counter to drinks. Jules ordered a Hurricane, Miranda ordered a Grasshopper, and Donna ordered a Blue Hawaii. When they ordered, they of course had to show their ID's to the bartender. When he saw that they were 22, 22 and 23, he got started on their drinks.

When Miranda and Donna went to the bathroom, Jules chose to stay at the bar counter and wait for them to get back. She accepted her drink from the bartender, saying a quiet "thanks" with a small smile. She turned her body around to face the rest of the dance floor and the majority of the club as _Obsession_ by Animotion started to play. As she bobbed her head slightly with the song, she caught the eye of someone who'd been looking at her from afar. She smiled a bit as she thought, _He's really hot._

The guy walked up to her at the bar. "Hey there," he smirked a bit, "What's your name?"

Jules gave a smirk of her own. "It's Jules," she answered, "What's yours?"

"Scott… so what's a pretty girl like yourself standing here alone?"

She chuckled. "I'm here with a few friends."

He nodded in understanding. "Since they're not here at the moment, wanna dance?"

"You sure cut right to the chase, don't you, Scott?"

"I'm not the smooth ladies' man I try to be," he shrugged and let out a laugh.

She chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, I'll dance with you."

"Great," Scott smiled sincerely.

-/-/-

A couple of hours later, Alec removed the VHS tape from the VCR player. He slipped the tape of _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_ back into its cardboard box case and placed it on top of the television. He turned off the television and walked over to Leslie, who was still on the couch. She was playing with the edges of the fleece blanket they had over them while they watched the movie- which was the same one every week.

"You got real freaked out a few times, huh?" Alec asked seriously.

"Yeah," Leslie answered in an embarrassed tone, "I can see now why Jack Nicholson won an Oscar for it."

"Do you need to stay the night?"

She let out a nervous chuckle as she stood up from the couch abruptly. "You made me sound five years old, Alec. I don't think, considering we just started going back out a few weeks ago, that it would be right."

"Les, I know how you get when you're freaked out. You're all jumpy and nervous, and you can't sleep. Look, you could take the bed and I'll take the couch if that'll make you more comfortable. I just don't want you to get freaked out, that's all."

Leslie gave a small smile. "Alright," she chuckled, "I guess, I cave."

-/-/-

Throughout the night, Jules continued to talk with Scott; she had eventually found out his last name Bailess. As the two talked, they would also flirt and dance together. Both were drinking, but not as much as you would have thought from looking at their actions- she had only had two drinks, and he had the same amount.

As _Raspberry Beret_ by Prince- from his most recent album earlier that year in April 1985- played throughout the night club, Jules and Scott left the dance floor. Ironically, that two had danced to the song the played before it together, and the next song that began to play was _Dancing With Myself_ by Billy Idol. By then, it was nearly midnight, and a song that would've been more appropriate and ironic to their atmosphere would have been _Night Moves_ by Bob Seger and the Silver Buller Band.

"As much as I'd love to stay," Jules said, "I should really get going now."

Scott nodded. "I'll probably be heading home myself pretty soon," he said and stretched a bit, "Can I call you sometime?"

She smiled. "Yeah, I'd like that. I'll write down my number." Once she finished writing down her number, she handed him the piece of napkin she'd written it down on- then for herself, he wrote down his number. "I really had a good time tonight, Scott."

"I did too, Jules." He kissed her cheek before she smiled and left the club.

 **Ironically, as I typed about Raspberry Beret by Prince, When Doves Cry played on Music Choice 80s- but now it's Eternal Flame by the Bangles but I don't like the Bangles at all.**

 **I already love Jules and Scott, I swear, I love them; I'm gonna have them get married and have a hundred million children. (ok, maybe not, but let's see where they go, shall we? Cause even I don't know yet.)**

 **And by the way, I made sure to include about Jack Nicholson's Academy Awards considering they were this past Sunday. Leo finally won- no more jokes about him never getting one. Plus I'm mad that Sylvester Stallone didn't win best supporting actor for Creed, but I'm happy Dave Grohl was the one chosen to play the memoriam song cause I absolutely love Foo Fighters.**

 **Anyway, I have SAT's this weekend so please wish me luck. I'm scared out of my mind about it, and I have no idea what Trigonometry is. Plus there's a good chance people in my class from my old school with be there, and I'm nervous about that cause none of us have kept in contact really since I left there. So yeah, I'm scared for a number of reasons.**

 **Anyway, hope those reading this enjoyed the chapter, peace from all the hippies of the world. =^-^=**


	14. Reunited

Billy stood on the train stop platform with his hands in the pockets of his coat. He had brought a map of the entire city of New York with him, just to be sure about where he was going and where he and Wendy would be going. He had written down on it how he'd gotten from the bar to the train station, so that was how he would go back to his apartment right above the bar with Wendy before they did anything else.

After Billy had been standing on the platform for around ten minutes, the train finally came. Once it came to a complete stop, all the doors opened and people filed out from all opening of the train. People were all over the place, both entering and leaving the train, meeting up with people who'd been waiting for them on the platform just like he was. He tried to stand on the front of his foot too look over some over the heads and between shoulders in attempt to find Wendy through the bustling crowd.

By the time everyone had filed in and out of the train, Billy still hadn't found Wendy. _Maybe she got on the wrong train,_ he thought sadly, _Or maybe she even missed it._ He turned around and walked over to one of the payphones against the wall. Before he was able to slide his quarter into the slot to make a call, he heard his name being called by a familiar voice from somewhere behind him.

"Billy?" the gentle, feminine voice tried to confirm as they walked up behind him.

Billy turned around and saw the voice belonged to Wendy before hanging the handset phone back up. "Hey, Wen," he smiled.

Wendy smiled brightly. "Billy!" she exclaimed with a smile on her face, wrapping her arms around his neck to hug him, burying her head in the crook of his neck.

He laughed as she did this, and he didn't hesitate to hug her tightly back. "I've missed you, Wen."

"I've missed you, too."

-/-/-

"So you slept over at the apartment you used to share with Alec last night?" Jules asked, a bit shocked by what she'd been told.

Leslie told Jules about sleeping at her old and once shared apartment with Alec. It's not like she could really hide the fact that she hadn't slept at home the night before, considering her roommate was at their apartment while she wasn't. Because of that, she had to tell where she was and who she was with- plus, she had to think about who she was telling this all to.

Leslie shrugged a bit. "Yeah," she answered, "I mean, we didn't sleep in the same bed. We didn't think it was the best idea, considering where we're at right now, you know?"

Jules nodded. "I can respect that," she answered with a slight shrug.

"Yeah… so anyway, tell me about this guy you met last night?"

"How'd you know about him?"

"Wendy may have mentioned it to me before she left since I ran into her on my way home and when she was going to the train station."

"Damn it, I wanted to tell you."

Leslie laughed. "Well," she said, "You can tell me _about_ him right now. There's an idea."

"Alright then," Jules said and laughed, "Well, his name is Scott Bailess. He's twenty-five years old. He's got green eyes, which are absolutely beautiful. He also had facial hair, but not the nasty scruffy kind, the nicely trimmed kind."

"Anything else?"

"He asked for my number last night and said he's gonna call me, and I got his number."

"Are you gonna call him first?"

Jules shook her head. "Not until a third date," she answered, "My rule is, the girl doesn't call first until the two have gone out at least three times."

-/-/-

Kirby sat going over his LSAT book. He went over that book so much that it was almost like it was his hobby to go through it. All of his free time was used for studying. Sure, he would take breaks, but he really did that only when he had to eat or sleep or something like that. That's how much he wanted to pass the test and go to law school.

As Kirby studied, the phone began to ring, making him jump slightly. He took his pencil and shoved it between the pages he was on, then closed the book shut, making sure the pencil was there as his bookmark. He placed the book on his chair before walking over to the phone. "Hello?" he said, answering the call and picking up the handset.

" _Hello? Kirby, is this you?"_ a familiar voice asked.

"If you're looking for Kirby Keger, you found him. Who's this?"

" _It's Emily. Remember? Emily Parker from the law office."_

"Oh, hi, Emily. How are you?"

" _I'm good, thanks… listen, I, uh… I wanted to ask you something."_

"Yeah, sure. What's going on?" Kirby asked.

Emily cleared her throat. _"Well, I was wondering if, maybe we could meet up this weeked? If you can,"_ she said.

"I don't have anything this weekend. Yeah, sure. You wanna meet up for lunch or something?"

" _Oh yeah, that'd be great. Um, this is kinda embarrassing, but would you mind it terribly if I brought Elizabeth with me? John said he's busy this Saturday, so I'd have to bring her with me."_

"No, I don't mind. You can bring her. I meant to tell you, she's a sweet little girl."

" _Oh, thanks, that means a lot. And you're sure you don't mind if she comes?"_

"Not at all."

" _Thanks, Kirby,"_ Emily said in a relieved tone, " _Alright, I guess I'll see you this weekend."_

-/-/-

Ada opened the cardboard box on her bed that was labeled "Ada's Christmas Decorations". The box was one of three boxes that held decorations for her bedroom during the Christmas season. The three boxes all had this label, along with one of three different labels that said: "lights/ornaments", "room decorations", or "miscellaneous Christmas".

Christmas was kind of a big deal in the Robertson home- right up there with birthdays, the fourth of July, and wedding anniversaries.

Ada removed her small artificial tabletop tree from the "room decorations" box. She placed it down in the corner of her room, not far from her desk, but not hidden by anything. She also then took out the small tree skirt, wrapping it around the tiny tree on the ground beneath it. She then took a strand of lights and her ornaments from their shared box and placed them all over the small tree. She then continued to unload the boxes and unload the contents all over her bedroom. A nutcracker that looked like a teddy bear soldier over here, some lights there, a couple of turtle doves, a _Macy's_ snow globe, a small nativity scene, and a mistletoe over the doorway- just for symbolism.

Ada couldn't help but look at the mistletoe over the top of her doorway as she sat down on her bed once she finished. It was up every year, as well as in nearly every doorway of the house with the exception of the bathrooms. It was kind of an odd tradition, but for as long as she could remember- and that went all the way back when she first learned how to walk- they always had that mistletoe around.

Ada was brought from her thoughts when she heard her name being called from beyond the hallway. "Ada?" her father called from below the stairway.

"Yeah, Dad?" Ada called back.

"Do you want to invite anyone over for Thanksgiving this year?"

Another tradition in the Robertson household was to invite someone over for Thanksgiving dinner, and for Christmas dinner. If a member of the family didn't have anyone to invite one year, there would be no sort of "penalty" for it, with the exception of being "busted" and teased- in good fun- the next year when it came around again about how they hadn't found anyone to invite the previous year. It was all in good fun, considering how close the family was.

But unfortunately for Ada, she had no one to invite over for the Robertson Thanksgiving dinner of 1984.

Ada thought for a moment before she smiled a bit then ran out of her room and to the top of the staircase. "Can I invite Kevin if he doesn't have any plans?" she asked a bit eagerly.

Jacob laughed from his position at the bottom of the staircase. "Sure, sweetheart," he laughed, "You can invite Kevin."

She then went down the stairs, past her father, and to the wall phone in the kitchen. Once she got to the phone, she quickly dialed Kevin's phone number. The whole time, she could see her father smiling from the corner of her eye.

 **Yes I know thanksgiving was just about five months ago, and another nine months away, but too bad.**

 **SATs went well, I think. But I can say this guarantee- it was five hours of my life I'm never gonna get back. But in a way it was worth it since I plan on going to college right after I graduate high school next year, and I have to apply to colleges early this fall, so yeah. Me and my parents just hope I did well enough so that I don't have to take the stupid test again and try for a better score. Luckily though for college, I know what I wanna major and minor in (at least my choices, which are: History, Theatre Arts, and English- I probably won't do English).**

 **Anyway, thoughts on Kirby and Emily? Anyone, anyone? (Ferris Bueller reference)**

 **Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter, and peace from all the hippies of the world. =^-^=**


	15. Cold As Ice

"You actually found a place to go ice skating on Thanksgiving?" Leslie asked, not fully believing what she'd been told.

"Well, believe it cause I did," Alec smirked, 'It's on the outskirts of town."

"Fine, I'm trusting you. But if we're going, we go after we go out with Jules and Kirby for dinner at that diner she said she found."

"Deal."

Alec had kept his promise and really did find a place for him and Leslie to go ice skating. It wasn't a fancy place, but it wasn't a place that was disgusting either. It was a family place, technically- more like "family friendly". Since it was located on the outskirts of town, it was open to those who didn't really celebrate Thanksgiving or those who just didn't want to, or those who had nothing to do.

Leslie trusted Alec, but she was skeptical of where he'd be taking her. Sure, he worked for the senator, but that meant nothing. But working there, he probably knew people that would've been able to track down and find an indoor ice skating rink. _Maybe having a boyfriend who works for the senator really does have its perks,_ she thought jokingly.

-/-/-

Billy slightly grunted as he woke up and shifted his position in bed. When he moved, the sun caught his eyes, temporarily blinding him and blocking his sight until he looked away. He kept readjusting his position until the sun was no longer in his eyes and the only thing that caught his eye was a head of naturally blonde hair. When he saw it, a tired smile formed his lip shape.

Billy heard Wendy yawn and felt her body tense against his torso before she turned over. When she did, their eyes met and they both smile. He couldn't help but lean forward and gently press his lips against hers, and she didn't hesitate to return the action. The two slowly and gingerly pulled apart from each other and he ran his left hand through a few blonde strands, making her chuckle a bit.

"What's so funny?" Billy asked with a confused look on his face, yet a smile still on his lips.

Wendy's smile was still in place as well. "I've never seen your hair out of place before," she chuckled.

He smirked a bit. "Same goes for you, Wen. But you know what?"

She gave a skeptical look. "What?"

"I love your bedhead… now if I were you, I'd get ready to go out."

"It's 7:25 in the morning on Thanksgiving, where could we _possibly_ be going?"

"Herald Square."

-/-/-

" _The Macy's Fifty-Ninth Annual Thanksgiving Day Parade is coming to you live from New York City! Your host for the great event are Pat Sajak, Bert Convy, and Phylicia Ayers-Allen!"_

Alec and Leslie sat on the couch in their once shared apartment. Kirby, Jules and Kevin were also there; Jules was on the other side of the couch, Kirby sat in a chair he'd pulled up next to the couch, Kevin on the floor against the couch in front of Jules. Five of the group of seven sat quietly as they watched the current Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade live on the television. Of where they all lived, it was agreed that the one they were all currently in was the biggest and most comfortable for them to be watching in.

"So this is the same parade that they had in _Miracle on 34_ _th_ _Street?_ " Jules asked seriously and slightly confused.

The four all gave their friend weird look. "You're kidding right?" Leslie chuckled a bit.

Jules shook her head. "No, I'm serious."

"It's a real parade, Jules," Kevin pointed out and said in a tone like it was as obvious as it really was.

Jules gave a weird look. "So it wasn't just made up specifically for the movie?"

"Jules, the first Macy's Day Parade was in the 1920s and it's been going on every year since," Alec explained, "It's a tradition in most homes to watch it every year."

"You've never watched it before?" Kirby asked, a bit shocked.

"No, never," Jules answered, "At home, we were never up early enough to watch it. This is my first time."

"Oh my gosh," Leslie gasped slightly.

Jules rolled her eyes. "Alright, I know-"

Leslie cut her off. "No, not you. Look at the screen- that's Billy and Wendy! They're at the parade!"

The other four that were there did as their friend said and looked at the screen. When they did, the camera operators at the parade were showing a portion of the parade crowd attendees. Toward the top right of the screen, there was Billy and Wendy, clear as crystal. His left arm was draped around her shoulders and holding her close, probably due to the cold, and she was nestled close against his left side. The two were saying things to each other probably only they could hear due to the crowd, both smiling at what was being said.

"The bum can get them into the Macy's Day Parade," Alec stated, "But he could barely hold any of those jobs he got?" His tone proved that he was joking, and the five all laughed at his words.

-/-/-

"Ok, is it just me or is that Santa Claus creepy?" Billy asked with a laugh.

"No, you're right," Wendy laughed, "But aren't they all creepy unless it's Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle?"

He laughed again. "Good point."

The two then tried to move away from where they were standing to get away from the rest of the parade crowd. It took about ten minutes to get through the crowd that was going into the _Macy's_ store, the largest store in the whole world. They had decided that they'd go to the large store another day before the blonde was scheduled to get on a train and go back to Washington D. C.

Once the parade had ended and they got through the crowd, the two walked to a diner in the city. After the two had something to eat, they left the diner and walked through the crowded streets of New York City. Billy led her through the crowds, his hand tightly around hers, to Rockefeller Center, where the city had opened up the ice skating rink. When they got there, the large tree was already up, but the lights and ornaments were not on and lit yet.

"When did you learn how to ice skate?" Wendy asked as she finished tying the laces of her own skates.

Billy shrugged a bit. "I came here once or twice and taught myself how to at least move forward and keep my balance without holding onto the wall," he answered with a slight chuckle.

Wendy let out a laugh. "And how'd you do?"

"Let's just say, I can only go forward and slightly keep my balance on my own, and probably fall down about ten times at most."

She laughed again. "I can help you keep your balance if you want to, you know."

"No thanks, Wen. Besides, it'll probably make you laugh to see my fall."

"I'm not sure. But even if I do laugh, would it be word the fall?"

Bill smiled. "Definitely," he answered, causing Wendy's cheeks to turn pink and a smile to form her face. The two then left the area they were in, then went out into the ice rink of Rockefeller Center.

-/-/-

"So how was your first Macy's Day Parade?" Kirby asked.

Alec, Leslie, Kirby and Jules had went to that diner they'd found like planned. Kevin could not go with them, claiming her was going to Thanksgiving dinner at his girlfriend Ada's house.

"It was good," Jules answered, "It was worth getting up early on a holiday for."

The other three laughed at her answer. "I'm shocked your family never watches it," Leslie commented.

Jules shrugged a bit. "On holidays my dad always let me and my older sister just sleep in, so we were never up to see it."

The four friends continued to talk as they air their "Thanksgiving meals' form the nearly empty diner. It felt a bit weird having only the four of them present, rather than their original seven, but they did their best to try and get past those feelings. They somehow did, and ended up laughing nearly the whole time.

After they all ate, Alec and Leslie claimed that they were going ice skating. Kirby and Jules didn't really get why and where they were planning to go for ice skating on Thanksgiving, but the decided to just let the two with the reforming relationship be, and not ask questions. The four separated, giving different forms of salutations as Alec and Leslie drove in one direction, and Jules and Kirby back toward town.

 **I got my first reviews on this story, oh my gahd. You know who you are and I swear I love you for those reviews (especially how you reviewed on my author's notes as well XD that was great).**

 **Anyway, hope everyone is enjoying their spring break, whenever the heck it is for you. I finished mine last week, so yeah. I also hope everyone had an awesome and fun Easter/ Resurrection Sunday (if you get offended by the second name for it I have, that's kinda too bad, but yeah).**

 **Oh by the way, I looked up stuff about the 1985 Macy's Day Parade, so I'm pretty sure I have the right year for it. If I don't I apologize, cause I can't be too sure about that year's parade since I wasn't born till 1999. I barely remember all the details of last year's parade, and I watch that thing every year.**

 **I must go now, Led Zeppelin is playing on the Music Choice Classic Rock station.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and peace from all the hippies of the world. =^-^=**


	16. I Thank You

"I can't believe this," Leslie said with a slight chuckle, "You really _did_ find a place to go ice skating."

Alec smirked a bit in victory. "And you doubted me," he teased with feign hurt.

She chuckled. "Alright, alright, I admit it: you did good, Alec."

The walked from the stands, through the small door and onto the smooth indoor ice skating rink. There were only about four or five more people on the ice, all dispersed away from each other with the exception about half of the people already there. Alec took Leslie's and in his own and led her out. She started to stumble as soon as her blades touched the ice, causing her to grab onto his arm quickly her body to tense out of nervousness. Her body grew tenser as she clung to him and they began to move and she moved slowly.

"You alright, Les?" Alec asked and stopped moving forward for a moment.

"Yeah," Leslie answered with a nod, "I just lost my balance, that's all."

Leslie hadn't gone ice skating since her junior year in high school, which was five years previous to the present. She remembered that when she'd gone in high school, that she enjoyed the activity, so that's why she had agreed to go. It didn't occur to her that she was out of practice, but she'd be lying if she said that she wasn't completely shocked since it had been five years since she last ice skated… and even then in high school, she wasn't very good.

 _Ok,_ Leslie thought _, Here goes nothing, I guess._

-/-/-

Kevin walked up the steps of the Robertson house with his hands in his pockets in attempt to keep them warm. As he walked onto the porch and to the front door, he let out a deep breath before knocking on the door. He stuffed his hand back in his jacket pocket as he heard Banzai barking from the other side of the front door, and he chuckled at that, and footsteps from the other side from one of the dog's owners.

The door opened and Jacob Robertson appeared in the doorway. "Hello, Kevin," he smiled, "Happy Thanksgiving! Come on in."

Keven gave a small smile back as he nodded and walked into the house. "Happy Thanksgiving to you too, sir," he said respectfully.

"You can call me Jacob, Kevin… at least when we're not at work."

"With all due respect, it'd be kinda weird for me to do that since you're my boss and my…"

The older man smirked knowingly. "Your girlfriend's father?"

"Um… yeah, that."

Jacob let out a light hearted laugh as he led Kevin to the living room where everyone was talking and waiting. The younger man saw a few people that he recognized from the engagement party only a few days previous to the current; Alex and his fiancé Dawn, along with a few other people who had attended the party. As he was led into the room, people acknowledged the two as they walked, and they both returned the greetings as they walked.

"Jacob?" Anna Robertson called as she entered the living room, "Who was at- oh, hello, Kevin. Happy Thanksgiving!"

-/-/-

"You ok?" Wendy asked with a slight chuckle as she held out her hand.

Billy nodded as he accepted her hand and got up. "Yeah, thanks," he answered, "I think this is five times now."

She chuckled again. "Actually, it's six times, but who's counting?"

"You are, apparently." His tone was full of tease.

Once Billy was back up on his feet, he and Wendy continued around the slightly crowded ice rink. As they skated, they talked. There was no actual real "discussion", but they rather talked about anything they could think of to talk about. They looked like all the other couples going around the rink as they skated, except he had the best hair out of everybody- at least, that's what she'd say if anyone asked her.

"You know," Billy started, "If the two of us were a bit more settled I'd ask you to marry me."

Wendy stopped and looked at him in shock. "You'd… you said you'd," she stuttered.

He gave an embarrassed look. "I shouldn't have said that, should I have…?"

"It's fine, really. You just too me by surprise. Um… do you really wanna marry me?"

"Yeah, I do. I mean, once we're both more settled and such and have better paying jobs, but yeah… out of curiosity, what would you have said?"

Wendy gave a smile. "I would have said yes."

-/-/-

Alec and Leslie walked back into the once shared apartment for the second time during the day. As they walked in, the two took off their coats and set them aside on the coat rack. They walked over to the in home wet bar, making conversation as they did so.

"That was fun," Leslie said with a smile as she accepted a drink from her boyfriend, "I didn't know you could skate as well as you did."

Alec chuckled lightly. "Glad you think so," he smiled, "You weren't too bad yourself."

She smiled. "Thanks… you know, tonight, it was just like it used to be a few weeks ago."

Alex was quiet for a moment before speaking again. "I still love you, the same I did before… well, you know."

"I still love you, too. And just so you know, I'm still really sorry about that night. I was drunk and confused and mad at you, and it never should've happened."

"I'm sorry about everything I did that night, too, Les. And everything leading up to it. I uh… I still wanna marry you."

"I do too."

Alec gave a confused look. "Did I hear you right?" he asked, shocked by her words, "You wanna marry me?"

Leslie really did want to marry Alec. He was her first love, and she wanted him to be her only love. When they'd been broken up for that very short period of time, she had realized how he much she loved him and how much she wanted to be with him. Was their relationship a bit rocky? Of course it was, but whose wasn't? Even then, if she had to spend the rest of her life in a rocky and not always easy relationship with someone, she wanted him to be that someone… no matter how cliché it sounded.

Leslie let out a slight chuckle. "Yes, I wanna marry you Alec," she chuckled.

"So you're saying, if I proposed to you right now, you'd say yes?" Alec asked a bit eagerly.

"Why don't you try it and find out?"

He let out a slightly nervous chuckle. "Alright, um… Leslie Hunter, will you marry me?"

"Yes, Alec, I will marry you."

Alec looked at her shockingly, a small formed his face. "You will?"

Leslie chuckled. "Yes," she smiled and nodded, "Yes, I will marry you."

"Finally!" Alec said then laughed, and she did the same. He pulled her close and pressed his lips against hers, and she didn't hesitate to return his action.

-/-/-

Kevin and Ada sat outside on the back porch of the house as they talked. They did that a lot, and neither seemed to mind it too much. They found each other's company pleasing and they just liked the feeling of being with each other. The two could just sit talking, laughing, and they would just feel… comfortable.

They sat outside as people in the house all socialized. The Robertson parents were finishing up things in the house, in the kitchen and at the large dining table that had been brought out just for the holiday dinner. The table would be seating a total of thirteen people: the five Robertson family members, four soon to be in laws, Ada's boyfriend, and Adam's girlfriend and her parents.

"We like to invite as many people as we can ever year," Ada said, "It's been that way since I was a little girl, and so far, it hasn't changed yet."

Kevin nodded in understanding. "So you and your family are really sociable?" he asked.

"More my family than me, but yeah. We really like to have people we care about around whenever we possibly can. It may seem kinda odd to others, but to us, it's odd _not_ to do those things."

"I get it. I mean, I don't really know what it feels like completely, but I really like how close your family is. How much you all like being around each other."

Before either could say anything else, the two were called inside, being notified that the meal was ready. The two young journalists re-entered the house, taking off their coats as they walked back into the house. They walked through the rooms and to the long table, where everybody who was present would be sitting. Each one went to the seat he or she had chosen when they arrived and sat down. The thirteen all shared a Thanksgiving prayer before they all began to ear.

After the meal was finished, including the dessert, the thirteen all moved to the living room. The next tradition of the Robertson household began, which was that everyone who was present would be helping to decorate the large- even though artificial- Christmas tree. It was one of the major family traditions in the Robertson household, and everyone always enjoyed doing it.

As everyone decorated the tree, Kevin asked Ada to follow him into another room in the house so that they were separate from the rest of the guests. When they reached the other room, before she could question him, he quickly and gently took her face in his hands and leaned down to press his lips against hers. She didn't hesitate to kiss back and wrap her arms around his neck. She leaned back unconsciously, and he leaned forward with her before they moved back to an upright position. The two pulled apart and took in a breath, their heads still close together, their eyes looking into each other.

"I know I'm not the best at showing any kind of affection," Kevin started, "But you'll never understand how much you and your family mean to me, and I don't care how cheesy and cliché this sounds, or how that sounded."

Ada smiled. "I feel the same way about you," she said in a soft tone, "Thank you for making me truly happy."

"Thank you for giving me a positive outlook on life for once."

 **I love Kevin and Ada, I'm not even kidding. I also love the Robertson dog Banzai, who was named after my second favorite film, which I am on a huge kick about right now.**

 **You know when you like an actor or a film, and you randomly get on a "kick" on that person or film, almost like a phase. Just wanted to explain what a kick was if you weren't quite sure of the term.**

 **I saw the first two Jurassic Park films this past weekend. I seriously only watched them cause Jeff Goldblum in Dr. Ian Malcolm. And his characters daughter Kelly in the second film is so awesome, I love her so much, she's awesome. But yeah, I saw Jurassic World last year and it scared the living daylights out of me at certain points, so yeah. Now I just kinda make fun of the films, but that's how you know I like them, cause I make comments and jokes about the films. And Jeff Goldblum make me think of lizards and I don't know why.**

 **Alright, hope you liked the chapter- peace from all the hippies of the world =^-^=**


	17. Missing You

That Saturday after Thanksgiving, Billy walked Wendy to the train station. He had carried one of her bags for her as they walked through the cold streets of New York City. It was just as cold as it could get in Washington D. C., so the two weren't completely phased by the cold winter temperature as they walked. Once they arrived at the train station, he gave her back her bag.

"I'll miss you, Wen," Billy said genuinely, "It's been nice being with you again in person."

Wendy smiled and nodded in agreement. "Better than just talking on the phone," she chuckled, "I'll miss you too, Billy."

"I plan on visiting Washington D. C. soon. See how everyone's doing and such, see you again."

Before either could say anything, there was a call for the train going to the Washington D. C. station over the intercom. Wendy looked at the upcoming train then back at Billy. "That's my train. I'll, uh… I'll call you when I get back to my apartment like you asked me to."

Billy nodded. "Just wanna make sure you get back alright." When she turned around to board the train, he stopped her quickly. "Hey, Wen?"

She turned back and looked at him. "Yeah?"

"I… I love you, Wen."

She smiled and quickly ran to him and kissed him, and he kissed her back immediately. Their kiss was strong, but gentle at the same time. "I love you too, Billy." She then quickly went back and boarded the train. As the doors closed and the train moved forward, she looked out the window at him, smiled, and waved. He then smiled and waved back at her. The two did this until neither could see each other anymore.

-/-/-

"I have no idea what to wear," Jules whined and flopped down on her bed.

"There's a first," Leslie commented, "What about that red dress you just bought last week? Like you always say: guys go crazy over red, right?"

"Well, yeah, but this is only my first date with Scott. If this were like, the third or fourth date, sure. But the first date? No way."

"What are you two even doing, anyway? That might help with the clothing situation."

Jules was getting ready- or at least trying to get ready- for her first date with the guy she'd met at the Bangkok, Scott Bailess. The two were going out to dinner to some nice restaurant in the next town over, which was part of the reason she didn't want to wear the red dress that her friend had suggested. She wanted to dress somewhat subtle, then as they continued to go out together, then she'd dress more outgoing and bold like she always did.

Jules and Leslie had gone through nearly everything in the closet, but there seemed to be a problem with nearly every outfit and clothing combination they had. Usually, deciding on clothing was something that came easily and naturally to the two, especially to the on who's life practically revolved around clothing most of the time. She didn't know the reason, but for some odd reason, she couldn't figure out why it was so hard this time.

"We're going out to dinner in the next town," Jules answered, "It's a really nice restaurant, and I really wanna make a good impression."

"What about," Leslie started then thought for a moment, "What about that blue skirt with the light blue blouse? Those should look good together."

Jules smiled and nodded. "That might look good!" She turned to her closet in search of the two articles of clothing in question. She rummaged through the now half empty closet, determined to find the blue skirt and blue blouse that had been suggested. As she did this, her friend watched in silence and in curiosity.

Leslie had never seen her friend so anxious about a date. Whenever Jules had a date, she followed her strict dating and relationship guidelines- as she was still partly currently doing- went on the date, and came home. And maybe there were a few dates following the first, maybe a few nights she spent over the guy's house, depending on how serious they were getting, but then the relationship would end. Through all of those relationships though, she'd never be so nervous about it, so it was a bit shocking to see.

"You really like this Scott Bailess guy, don't you?" Leslie asked.

Jules turned around to face her friend, both articles of clothing on hangers in her hands. "Yeah," she answered with a smile, "There's something different about him. I don't know what, though, and it just feels that way."

"Do you think he might be _the one_?"

"I don't know! We haven't even had out official first date yet. Give it time, Leslie, gosh."

She chuckled. "Calm down, calm down. It's just that I've never seen you so interested in a guy before."

"I honestly was beginning to think it would never happen, you know? I'm starting to think that even my original life plans may not have been so great."

Leslie feigned disappointment. "That's a shame. I was really looking forward to that _woman of the eighties_ thing," she said and let out a chuckle.

Jules laughed. "Harty- har- har."

-/-/-

"So who's this girl you're having lunch with?" Kevin asked as he looked through some of his papers for the newspaper and the magazine.

Kirby glanced at his friend before going back to getting ready. "My boss' younger sister, Emily," he answered, "She's really. So is her daughter."

A confused look formed on his face. "Her _daughter?_ She's got a kid?"

"Well, yeah. Does it matter?"

"I don't know. How old is she? The girl and her daughter."

"Emily's twenty-three, and Elizabeth's four."

"Where's the girl's father?"

Kirby shrugged slightly as he stood up. "My boss told me he's not around. That's all I know about it."

Kirby would be a liar if he said he wasn't curious about where Elizabeth's father was. It just seemed a bit odd to him that Emily was a single mom of a four year old at only twenty-three years old. Was it wrong for him to be curious, but it's not like he was going to interrogate her about the situation and the topic and story. It was none of his business, and he respected that it was none of his business.

"Billy's got a kid, too," Kirby pointed out, "With Felicia. Little Melody. And even though they were legally married, I don't think you could call what they had a _marriage._ "

"You got a point, I guess," Kevin shrugged, "So is the kid gonna be with you two?"

"Yeah, Emily said she couldn't find anyone to watch Elizabeth for her, so she's bringing her along."

"And you have no problem with it?"

"Why should I?"

"Well, it sounds like this is a date, so won't it feel kinda weird?"

"It'll be fine."

Kirby finished getting ready before bidding his roommate goodbye ten leaving the apartment. He went down the stairwell and outside then walked over to his car. Once he reached the vehicle, he got in and started the engine, then drove off in the direction of where he would be meeting with Emily and Elizabeth.

-/-/-

Wendy and Leslie met up at the train station as the train arrived back in Washington D. C. Since everybody else pretty much had plans and other engagements, Leslie was the one who volunteered to pick up their friend from the train station who had just returned from New York City. Once she got there, the two greeted each other, then got into the car.

"So, how was New York City?" Leslie asked as she drove off.

"It was really great," Wendy smiled, Billy took me all over the city. It was so beautiful."

"Go anywhere particularly interesting? Like a parade in Herald Square?"

She gave her friend a confused look. "How'd you know that we went to the Macy's Day Parade?"

"We were all at Alec's apartment watching the parade and the camera landed on you and Billy in the audience."

Wendy looked. "The showed the part of the crowd where we were?"

"Yeah," Leslie chuckled, "Yes, they did. At least now we all know you two had some fun together."

"Oh, we did," Wendy said with a content smile.

 **Before I say anything else, I need to do like what I did in January.**

 **Rest In Peace, Prince Rogers Nelson, known either as "Prince" or "the Artist Formerly Known as Prince". It was such a shame how you died, and honestly, I feel the same way I did when David Bowie died and when Robin Williams died. You've always been around my life, even when I was little and didn't really know who you were by name. I remember hearing my two favorite songs of yours on my still favorite radio station, which are "When Doves Cry" and "1999". I used to love "1999" and would get so excited to hear it and always go on about "that's the same year I was born!" and such. I also always loved your music cause it seemed that you loved purple, which has always been my favorite color. What kind of scares me about your death is that exactly five days previous, I was watching "Purple Rain" from 1984 on television, also that you were the same age as my father, only being about a month and a week older than him. And since he's a musician, I guess you could say that it kinda makes me nervous. But thank you, Prince, for all your years of music and all the songs you gifted the world with. You go down in history as a legend, right there with David Bowie, as well as hundreds of others before you.**

 **"dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life. electric word life. it means forever and that's a mighty long time. but I'm here to tell you there's something else: the after world. a world of never ending happiness. you can always see the sun, day, or night. so when you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills, you know the one, Dr everything'll be alright, instead of asking him how much of your time is life, ask him how much of your mind, baby. cause in this life, things are much harder than in the after world. in this life, you're on your own."**


	18. Fallinlove2nite

"So you and Alec are finally engaged?" Wendy asked her friend eagerly.

Leslie laughed. "Yeah, we are," she answered with a chuckle, "We're finally engaged."

"This is great, Leslie! It sure took you two long enough to make it happen, that's for sure."

"Well, that was mostly my fault, and Alec's fault too- but either way, we're past it, and we are officially engaged."

Wendy couldn't have been happier for the two. She always thought that two should get married, as well like their other friends all thought. With the exception of a few things, they were the perfect couple. More importantly, it was obvious that the two were made for each other; they brought out the best qualities in each other, along with other things. To her, the two of them were that cliché couple that outshone any other couple around them… at least, this is all that she thought, she wasn't sure if their friends had the same thought, but she wouldn't be shocked if they did.

"Have you told anyone other than me yet?" Wendy asked.

"Just my mom and Alec's parents," Leslie shrugged a bit as she answered, "And of course you. We were gonna tell everyone else tomorrow at lunch."

The blonde smiled. "This is so great, you and Alec are finally getting married! And now you two can finally live happily ever after." Her tone was half serious and half teasing.

Leslie nodded and gave a weak smile as should couldn't help but think, _I sure hope so._

-/-/-

Scott and Jules walked into the restaurant, then escorted to a table by the restaurant hostess. The table was right next to a wall length window that overlooked the main street of where they were in town. It was a semi busy street, but not overcrowded. The light from outside also shown in through the window, both from the streetlights and the currently setting sun.

"Thanks for agreeing to go out with me," Scott said as they both sat down.

"Thank you for asking me to," Jules answered with a smile, "I was starting to think that you weren't gonna call me."

"Well, like I told you that night at the Bangkok, I'm not a smooth ladies man."

"Out of curiosity, what does that have to do with calling me?"

"It took me forever to think of how to ask you out for dinner."

Jules chuckled a bit. " _That's_ why you sounded so unsure of yourself over the phone."

Scott's eyes widened for a brief moment. "So I _did_ sound as nervous as a felt?"

"Just a little," she answered nonchalantly, "But if it makes you feel better, you don't sound or look nervous right now."

"Well, thanks," he laughed, "So you ready to order?"

-/-/-

Kirby walked into the diner and asked the waiter if a young woman with a little girl had entered the diner. When the answer was no, he got a booth seat next to a window and waited for the two to arrive. A few minutes later, he looked up when he heard the bell connected to the front door ring. When he did, he saw Emily looking around. When she spotted him, she smiled and waved, and smiled back at her and flagged her over to where he sat.

"Hi, Kirby," Emily greeted with a smile, "Again, thank you so much for letting met bring Elizabeth with me."

"No problem," Kirby confirmed with a warm smile, "And she's a great kid, so it'd be fine either way."

Emily was always pessimistic about her parenting skills. She always felt bad that her little girl had to live without a father and without a "real" family, and that it was normal for her to only be living with her mother, and having her uncle around all the time. But it wasn't her fault- that's what John would always say, and people who knew her situation would agree with him. She only partly believed them, but was told that after what had happened, it was normal for her to think that what had happened was her fault.

Emily loved her daughter will all her heart, that was obvious, but she just wished she'd gotten pregnant with her another way than she did. After what had happened, she was hesitant on keeping her at first. But after she was born, she couldn't think _not_ to keep her little girl. As time went on, she grew relieved that Elizabeth looked nothing like her father.

"So," Emily started, "Should we order?"

-/-/-

Jules and Scott left the restaurant after it had grown dark out and the street lamps were now laminating the sidewalks. The two walked down the street and to a nearby lake. There was near no one else in the park, with the exception of maybe three of four people scattered around the area and one dog. The park was still and quiet, the only sound being the rustle of the slight wind through the tree branches along with the quiet tone of crickets chirping, and their shoes slight tapping against the concrete pavement.

"Dinner was good," Jules commented.

Scott nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it was," he confirmed, "Better than the food at the Bangkok, that's for sure."

She chuckled a bit at his joke. "Very true, but remember, most people go thee for the atmosphere and for the drinks."

"Good point. Plus, they were playing some pretty good music that night."

"Was that the first time you went there?"

Scott nodded. "A few guys from work kept telling me to go," he started, "I'd always say no. I finally agreed after two months just to shut the two of 'em up."

"I can respect that," Jules said simply.

"Is that why you were there?"

"Not exactly; I was invited by two friends from work. I agreed cause my roommate was out with her boyfriend, our other friend was packing to go to New York, our other friend was studying for his LSAT or whatever the hell it's called, and I think the other was with his girlfriend."

"So you had nothing better to do."

"Pretty much, yeah."

Not long after, Scott and Jules decided to call it a night. Hesitantly and cautiously, he offered to take her home, and she agreed. They got into the car and she gave him the directions to drive to her apartment building. Once the two had arrived at the building, he walked with her inside the building and walked her up to the floor she lived on and to her front door.

"I had a good time tonight," Scott confirmed.

"I did too," Jules smiled, "And thanks for driving me home."

"Happy to do it. Uh… maybe I could see you again next weekend?"

"I think that'd be great."

He smiled. "Ok, great. I'll call you this week."

"Great."

"Great. Goodnight, Jules." Scott turned around and began to walk away, but stopped in his tracks, quickly turning around and walking back towards her.

Jules gave a confused look. "Scott, what're you-"

She was cut off by his lips pressed against her, and his hand up against the crook of her cheek and her jawline; she didn't hesitate to fall in time with the kiss. When the two pulled away from each other, he looked her straight in the eye. "I've wanting to do that the whole night."

She tried to bite back a smile, but tried to ignore the fact that she was failing. "I'm happy you did… goodnight, Scott."

"Goodnight, Jules."

-/-/-

Kirby, Emily and Elizabeth had all gone to the local playground after the diner. While the little girl ran around and played, the two adults sat on a bench at the playground, both keeping a close eye on the location of the little girl as she played. As they sat, the two also talked, more so than when they were all at the diner; that was part of the point to go to the playground, so that the two adults could talk together about more than they could with Elizabeth sitting there being able to hear every word they were saying.

"When I was a teenager," Emily started, "Around fourteen, John was twenty-one and graduating law school. He was always my role model after that point, so I decided I was gonna be a lawyer too."

"Really?" Kirby asked with a shocked chuckle.

She chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, I did. I was actually all set to go to law school when I finished high school, but Elizabeth came along and I couldn't. But I look back at it now and think that maybe she came along cause I wasn't meant to be a lawyer- cause if I did become one, I would've been a terrible lawyer."

"Why's that?"

"Cause I hate murder mysteries, and I don't understand one thing about law."

Not long after, the two decided to go their separate ways. Emily had called her daughter back from the playground, then Kirby walked them to their car. Emily buckled her daughter into her car sear then walked around to the front driver's side.

"Again," Emily started, "Thank you so much for letting me bring Elizabeth with us."

Kirby brushed it off. "No problem, really," he said, "She's a great kid."

She smiled a bit. "Aw, thanks. Today was really good."

"Yeah it was. Maybe we could do it again soon."

"I'd like that a lot. And who knows? Maybe it'll just be the two of us next time."

 **The next chapter is gonna cause problems for Alec and Leslie. It's gonna be terrible what I'm gonna do, but throughout their whole engagement, there's gonna be a lot of problems.**

 **Also, just so you know, this chapter was titled after a Prince song in honor of him, which- if I remember correctly- I did with a chapter here and another story once David Bowie died. I named the next chapter of the other story a Prince song too, so yeah.**

 **Anyone here read any good books lately? I finished reading "The Hunt" after a week and a half, and it was pretty good. If you like apocalyptic/ world war stuff, then I highly suggest it. Only two people I didn't want to die did die, but otherwise everyone else that was terrible that you kinda want to die, does, so that's that. Plus I started reading the original book of "Jurassic Park" cause I saw the films on television before I knew they were a book (at least the first two are books). So far, that book of the first film is so much better, and I love Dr. Ian Malcolm in both the book and film. He's so great and the only one with sense since he's been saying the park was gonna go wrong.**

 **Also, if anyone here likes movies that are war related or action films, or films with explosions and shooting, or survival, I highly suggest a film from 1981 called "Southern Comfort". It's up on YouTube, but you have to confirm that you're eighteen to watch it there (it's rated R). if you wanna watch it, make sure it's the one from 1981 that has Keith Carradine, Fred Ward, Powers Boothe, and Lewis Smith (I added Lewis Smith cause he's my second favorite actor and this was his first film).**

 **So yeah, anyway. Hope everyone's life is going good! Hope everyone is well, and hope everyone is nearly done with school (I'm done next week!) and that if you are, finish the year off with a bang. If you're graduating, I congratulate you.**

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter, peace from all the hippies of the world. =^-^=**


	19. It's Now Or Never

Leslie let out a groan of discomfort as she shifted her position. She was lying down in her bed on her left side, practically covering her face with her pillows. She had her eyes shut tight and her hand placed over her forehead to somehow try and ease her aching head. Her whole body ached with every move she would make, and she'd never felt so miserable before in her entire life.

It was the Monday after the day Leslie and Alec had officially announced their engagement to their friends. The announcement had sent the other four friends into an uproar of congratulatory words and cheers, so much that others in the diner looked at the group of six young people with questioning looks on their faces. While Kirby and Kevin weren't as ecstatic as Jules and Wendy- probably since those two always got excited about everything-n all four were happy. The whole time, Wendy doing a good job of acting like it was the first time she'd heard about the engagement.

And Alec had presented Leslie with a real engagement ring once they'd announced it.

But the Monday morning after, Leslie had woken up feeling nauseous and dizzy. Then having to rush to the bathroom, barely getting there, as her body had been taken over by complete and active nausea. Fifteen minutes later, she sluggishly went back to her bedroom and crawled back under that covers of her bed.

"Do you feel any better?" Jules asked her friend in a sympathetic tone.

"Not at all," Leslie muttered painfully in response.

"Why're you so sick anyway? I mean, I get that you work at a hospital, but I thought you worked in the offices?"

"I do work in the offices. And how should I know why I'm so sick? I'm a Medical Office Manager, not a doctor."

Jules thought a moment before her eyes widened a bit in shock. "Have you and Alec slept together yet?"

"The other day, yeah, why?"

"Did you have your _time_ this month yet?"

Leslie slowly began to sit up. "No, not yet."

"And you and Kevin did a little around a month ago, right?"

"Yeah…"

"I'll pick up a test at the store for you right now," Jules stated a bit nervously, and her friend nodded slowly.

-/-/-

"So, Keger," John began, "How'd lunch with my sister and my niece go the other day?"

Kirby looked up at his boss in alarm. "How'd you know about that?" he asked.

"My sister tells me everything. Besides, Lizzie's four years old and can't keep a secret to save her life."

John and Emily Parker were seven years apart in age; when he was six years old, he'd found out that he was going to be a big brother. Then a month after he turned seven years old, he got a new baby sister. The two had a pretty good relationship for a brother and sister that far apart in age. Of course, when he'd reached his teenage years they were a little rocky, then the same when he'd reached adulthood and she was in her teenage years. In 1981, when she'd become pregnant, though, that made the two grow close again and remained the day as time went on.

"Gonna answer my question or not?" John in with a slight laugh.

Kirby suddenly felt nervous. "I thought it went pretty good," he answered, "Why?"

"Just thought you'd like to know that both Emily and Elizabeth had a good time based off of what they told me."

Kirby began to unconsciously smile. "They did?"

"Yeah, they did… oh, by the way, could you drop over by the hospital for me? I was supposed to meet up with one of the head office managers but they called and said she called in sick and couldn't meet today. The hospital said that I could still pick up the papers for my niece's case, though."

"Yeah, sure. Do I need to know the office managers name to pick up the file?"

"Just say you're there for John Parker picking up papers from Leslie Hunter."

"Leslie Hunter?" Kirby questioned, a confused look forming his facial features, "She's the office manager you're working with?"

John nodded. "Yeah," he answered, "Why? You know her?"

"Yeah, we were friends at Georgetown. I just saw her yesterday. She didn't seem sick."

"She might not actually be sick. People call in sick all the time even when they're not. Besides, maybe she just caught something."

Kirby gave a concerned look. "Oh," he caved in with a slight sigh, "You're probably right… yeah, I'll go get those papers."

-/-/-

Jules practically ran up the staircase that led to the floor that her apartment was on. Her shoulder- strapped purse hit back and forth against her leg as she ran up the staircase. The small bag in her hand held five small boxes, each containing a different brand pregnancy test; she'd figured they'd get a more accurate answer if they were five different brands and five different tests.

Jules quickly ran into her shared apartment, nearly slamming the door shut behind her. She ripped off her coat and threw it on the couch as she ran into her shared bedroom where Leslie was. Her friend looked dup in alarm at the sound of the front door slamming and someone running around the apartment. When she saw it was her friend and roommate, she calmed down and slumped down in a bit in her bed.

"Are those the tests?" Leslie asked in a weak tone of voice, pointing to the plastic bag.

Jules nodded and tossed the bag onto the bed to her friend. "Yup, those are it," she answered, "I bought you five of them?"

"Five? Why so many?"

"I've always figured that five different brands of five different tests is more accurate than one brand of one test."

She thought a moment. "That makes sense, I guess."

"Yeah… so, you ready to take the tests?"

"Not really. I'm scared out of my mind. I mean, being pregnant seems scary in general- but not being married? That's terrifying. And if I am pregnant, I have a strong feeling that it's _not_ Alec's, and that it's Kevin's."

Leslie had never been so scared in her entire life. She remembered when she and Alec had first moved in together- along with other times- he'd mentioned the idea of them ever having children. She'd always dismiss the idea, the same way she'd dismiss the idea of marriage. She didn't want kids until she was ever married, and even then, she didn't want to become some baby making housewife. The thought of getting pregnant, giving birth, and raising a child always scared her… and now that there was more of a possibility that she was pregnant- most likely, _not_ with the child of the man she was engaged to- she was downright terrified.

"Ok," Leslie sighed, "I guess I'll go take these tests."

-/-/-

Kirby did as he'd been asked and rove down to the hospital to get the files he needed for his higher up. He had debated on whether or not to ask about Leslie to her colleague's. He chose not to, even thought he was worried about the whole thing, not to mention that he'd been told that Jules hadn't gone to work either- Wendy told him that when they ran into each other in town. The whole scenario was worrying, especially since nothing ever happened to the two girls.

Kirby quickly got the required file for his boss' niece, then left the hospital. He left the file on the passenger's seat of the car as he drove back to the law offices, checking on the file every so often to make sure none of its contents fell out.

When Kirby arrived back at the law office, he gave his higher up the file he'd been sent to pick up. Once he gave his boss the file, John handed him a small envelope.

"What's this?" Kirby asked with a confused look on his face.

"It's from my sister," John answered with a small smirk, "She told me she can't wait till the next time she sees you."

Kirby took the small envelope from John. As his higher up walked away, he felt a small smile form on his face as he looked at the envelope.

-/-/-

Leslie leaned forward with her hands against the sink. She shut her eyes for a brief moment as she let out a deep breath and her heart began to race in her chest. She did all five tests, but didn't have the courage to look at the results on her own.

Leslie jumped when she heard a knock on the door. "Leslie? You ok?" Jules asked through the wooden bathroom door. She let out a breath before opening the door, showing her friend from the other side of the door.

"I was just about to look at the results," Leslie said quietly.

"Want me here with you?" Jules asked gently.

Leslie nodded nervously. Her friend nodded a bit and entered the bathroom, leaving the door open. The two moves to where the five tests sat on the small cabinet in the bathroom.

"You ready?" Jules asked her friend.

Leslie shrugged a bit as her body began to shake rapidly with nerves. "It's now or never," she answered with a nervous sigh.

 **I finished school officially, I'm so happy. I am no longer a junior in high school, I'm now a senior oh my gahd. To celebrate that, I watched movies all day on Monday; I watched:** _ **Mad Dog Time, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, Oscar**_ **and** _ **Young Frankenstein.**_ **It was great.**

 **I don't know how updating will go for this story or any other stories for the rest of the summer, since I'm trying to find a summer job. I know that, if something happens, I will at least be updating once a month instead of twice a month (so once every four weeks rather than once every two weeks). This is not a definite yet, so as far as I know, it'll still be once every two weeks.**

 **Oh, I just wanna say that I saw the new** _ **Captain America: Civil War**_ **film. It was so amazerful, oh my gahd. Me and my dad went without my mom cause she hates that kinda of stuff. Me and my dad loved it and when my mom asked us how it was we'd say, "it was great, but you would've hated it." Me and my dad pretty much like all the same film type stuff (except for alien sci fi stuff, with the exception of a few) and my mom doesn't so yeah.**

 **Anyway, hope you guys liked the chapter! And since I won't be updating till after the holiday- Happy Memorial Day! Peace from all the hippies of the world =^-^=**


	20. I've Been Hurt

"They're all negative," Leslie said in a relieved tone of voice.

Jules let out a breath of relief. "Ok," she breathed out, "In this case, that's great."

"You're telling me. I'm just curious why I'm so sick, though."

"Do you have pain anywhere?"

Leslie thought for a moment. "While you were out, my right side felt like it was on fire. And it was still a little achy yesterday. Otherwise, I'm alright."

Jules gave a weird look. "That's odd… look, since you say you're alright, I'm gonna go to work for the half day. Will you be alright?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. And if anything, I can call Alec or Wendy if I can't reach you at all."

Jules nodded. "Alright," she agreed and went to the front door, "I'll see you later then."

Leslie nodded and watched as her friend left the apartment they shared. When the door closed, she walked over to the couch in the living room and sunk down into the couch and against the cushions. She used her left hand to clutch her right side, which had never actually stopped hurting. She chose not to mention it, knowing it would worry here roommate, who would alert their other four friends. She figured that if she just waited it out and played through the pain, it'd go away within a period of time on its own.

She hadn't been that lucky just yet.

Leslie shut her eyes to try and get some rest. She stayed where she was on the couch as she did so,, trying to ignore the pain in her right side that she knew and could feel was slowly increasing. She could live with the pain for the time being, and chose to stay that way and wait until that pain went away.

-/-/-

Kevin looked up when he heard d knock on the door of his new office located in the magazine department of the newspaper. When he looked up from the papers scattered across the surface of the desk, he saw Ada standing in the doorway; her office was around the corner from his own. She had a small smile on her face that showed pride as she looked at him. A small smile formed on his own face when he looked up at her.

"Hey," Kevin greeted as he stood up and walked over to her, "What's up?"

Ada entered the office. "Nothing," she answered with a nonchalant shrug, "Just came by to say hi. And I wanted to see if we were still on tonight."

"I would hope so. I was looking forward to going to the movies with you."

"As am I, that's why I was checking. DO you have any idea what movie we should see tonight?"

"Not a clue. I thought we'd just figure it out when we got there."

Ada walked forward and closer to him. "That's cool with me. Then maybe we could go somewhere after," she suggested.

"Somewhere like…?" Kevin drifted off, only slightly sure of where she was going with this, not wanting to go too far.

"I don't know yet. I'll decide later." Her voice was teasing and slightly seductive.

He let out a slight chuckle. "Alright then," he smiled.

Ada laughed. "I'll see you later," she said then left the office.

-/-/-

Ada walked back to her office, clutching a few folders against her chest. She used one hand to push back a few strands of her hair behind her ear as she walked. She glanced out the window that looked over the area of Washington D. C. From the window, she could see the Washington Memorial. She stopped, turned, and stared out the window at the monument that was a symbol of America's first president.

Ada loved living in Washington D. C. Along with creative writing, journalism, and reading, her favorite subject in school was American History. During her final two years of high school, she'd had her face stuffed in a book series written by the author John Jakes, called _The Kent Family Chronicles_ , a historical fiction series. Then after that, she'd read his book, _North and South_ , which had been adapted into a television mini-series that past month; she'd also read the sequel _Love and War_ , which would be another mini-series the following year.

After reading his work and studying America History and Creative Writing, she dreamed of becoming a historical fiction writer.

Ada continued to stare out over the historical city that she considered herself lucky to be living in. She smiled to herself before turning and walking back to her office. She would continually turn and glance out through the window over the city that was full of people, who were obviously tourists. She chuckled to herself at the sight, since she'd always loved to watch the tourists go through the city. She then continued to her office, but jumped and turned around when she heard her name being called from behind her.

"Ada?" a voice like her father's called form somewhere behind her.

Ada turned to look at her father. "Yeah, Dad?" she asked.

"I just wanted to run by some work I just got accepted for you. You're going to love it."

She rolled her eyes a bit. "Dad, you know I hate when you take jobs for me."

"I know, I know. But I got you an interview with John jakes about the upcoming mini-series for the second book, _Love and War."_

"Seriously?!"

Jacob Robertson nodded happily. "Yes, I did! I know how much you love his books, and when the opportunity came along for us to interview him about it, I couldn't think of anyone else better for the interview. Will you do it?"

Ada smiled excitedly. "Of course!"

-/-/-

Alec looked over the papers that were all spread out across his desk. He was currently working on of the many jobs that he had to do as his work for the senator. It was one of the assignments that he preferred _not_ to do, due to its level of boredom inducing stress and tedious non-required work. But he chose to suck it up and just get it done and over with, for the sake that it paid well and it was good for any future resumes that he'd have in the future. Other than the pay and the doors it might open, if he could, he'd find a new job.

Working for the senator had grown annoying at this point.

Alec continued to look though the papers on his desk, reading through specific papers on specific topics. Each one seemed to be about some sort of campaign, or a speech event, or some kind of town act. Each one had to either be signed, approved, or revised. It was a tiresome job- not to mention, _excruciatingly_ boring- but it had to be done. And unfortunately, someone had to either volunteer or be chosen to do it. Unfortunately for him, he'd been chosen since no one had volunteered.

Alec practically jumped out of his seat when he heard his desk phone being to ring. He took a breath to calm his racing heart before picking up the handset of the phone. "Senator Hodges office," he informed.

 _"Hello, is this Alec Newbary?"_ a feminine voice asked.

"Yes, that's me. Can I ask who this is?"

 _"I'm a nurse at the hospital Leslie Hunter works at, my name is Isabel Perkins. Her file has you as her emergency contact. Do you know her?"_

He grew worried. "Yes, I do, we're engaged. Did something happen?"

 _"I called to tell you that she's been emitted."_

"Is she alright? What happened?"

 _"She called for an ambulance about fifteen minutes ago and got here about five minutes ago. She complained about strong pains in her lower right abdomen. We're running tests now."_

"She's in the ER?"

 _"Yes, that's right."_

"I'm on my way," Alec informed then hung up the phone. He got up from his seat and dashed out from the room and through every door that stood in his way. His co-workers and others asked him about his sudden and rushed departure as he ran. He answered the same thing to everyone: "My fiancé's in the ER!"

 **I apologize for the day later update of this story. Yesterday, I was out with my mother all day, so I didn't get the chance to update this or** ** _Cherry Flavored Soda._** **For this, since my schedule for updating was a little altered this week, three stories will updated today, and two tomorrow.**

 **I finished reading** ** _The Lost World_** **by Michael Crichton. It was great. My favorite character- Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum in the first two** ** _Jurassic Park_** **films) was high on morphine for the majority of the second half, or the last third of the book. Ironically, it was pretty much that way in the first book as well. It was funny, especially cause he gets really cynical and philosophical when he's high, it's amazing. Now I'm reading** ** _Buckaroo Banzai_** **by Earl Mac Rauch; the film from 1984 is my second favorite film in my top three (** ** _Rhinestone_** **from 1984 being my first, then** ** _This Is Spinal Tap_** **from 1984 being my third). Supposedly the book came first, but it's suggested to watch the film first.**

 **So yeah, I think that's it. Alright, hope you enjoyed the chapter, peace from all the hippies of the world. =^-^=**


	21. PLEASE READ THIS AUTHORS NOTE

_**NOT A REAL UPDATE, BUT PLEASE READ THIS AUTHOR'S NOTE**_

This week I would've updated the next chapter of _**Up In Flames**_ , along with my other five stories. I cannot fulfill this update for this week, like I usually would. Due to certain events going on in my life, that have been since right after I finished updating two weeks ago, so I've been kinda all over the place. This has caused a huge case of writers block for me, and I wasn't able to finish all the newest chapters for each of my stories. With this, I apologize for not being able to upload this week like my usual updating schedule/pattern. I will continue this back up in another two weeks, as if I had updated this week. That way, I will have an entire month this time to write the newest chapters in each of my stories, and a total of two chapters will already be done for each story- if it all goes according to plan- and then even if I get massive writers block again, I'll already have a chapter done so that I can update.

Again, I apologize for the next two weeks of waiting for the next chapter. After these two weeks, when I update, I will continue updating every other week. Thank you, and peace from all the hippies of the world.

As a thank you for your patience, here's at least a preview of what I do have of the next chapter:

 _ **Chapter 20: I Get Around**_

Alec ran inside the ER waiting room and to the front desk. The woman who sat at the desk was the same woman who'd called him, Isabel. She jumped in alarm as he got to the front desk and looked at him with wide eyes as she waited for him to move or say something.

"Can I help you, sir?" Isabel asked unsurely.

"Uh, yeah," Alec answered nervously, "My name's Alec Newbary, you called me about Leslie Hunter."

"Oh! Yes, she's here."

"Can I see her? Where is she?"

"Well, you can't see her yet. She's still in surgery."

His eyes widened in fear. " _Surgery?_ What happened that she needs to have surgery?"

"She has appendicitis, sir. The way to treat it would be for the doctor to surgically remove the appendix."

"Is that bad?"

Isabel shook her head. "Not at all," she answered, "Thousands of people have to get their appendix removed every year."


	22. I Get Around

Alec rushed over to the hospital ER as quickly as humanly possible. He'd nearly gotten a speeding ticket or two as he drove, but he somehow managed to drive at a humanly speed at those moments- before speeding back up again when he got the chance. The whole drive there, his heart was racing out of nervousness. No matter how hard he tried during the drive, he couldn't seem to calm down his racing heart.

Alec ran inside the ER waiting room and to the front desk. The woman who sat at the desk was the same woman who'd called him, Isabel. She jumped in alarm as he got to the front desk and looked at him with wide eyes as she waited for him to move or say something.

"Can I help you, sir?" Isabel asked unsurely.

"Uh, yeah," Alec answered nervously, "My name's Alec Newbary, you called me about Leslie Hunter."

"Oh! Yes, she's here."

"Can I see her? Where is she?"

"Well, you can't see her yet. She's still in surgery."

His eyes widened in fear. "Surgery? What happened that she needs to have surgery?"

"She has appendicitis, sir. The way to treat it would be for the doctor to surgically remove the appendix."

"Is that bad?"

Isabel shook her head. "Not at all," she answered, "Thousands of people have to get their appendix removed every year."

Alec nodded in understanding. "What do I do until I can see her?" he asked.

"You can wait in the waiting room. I'll call you when she's out and taking visitors."

"Ok… do you guys have a payphone?"

"OF course, right over there." She stood up slightly and pointed in the direction of the location of the payphones on the wall.

Alec nodded in thanks and walked over to the phones. Out of the six phones on the wall, two of the phones were open and not currently in use. He chose the empty phone of the left end, picking up the handset of the phone. He used his other free hand to dig around in his pocket for four quarters, one to call each of the people he was friends with; Wendy would probably call Billy in New York and tell him what was going on. He inserted his first quarter, and dialed one of the four phone numbers he now knew by heart.

-/-/-

Wendy sat at her desk, checking off a list of papers that had to be sent out. It was one of her tedious tasks as a social worker, one that sometimes made feel like her job was useless and a waste of both time and energy. But then there were other times when it felt like her job was actually important… another plus was that the job payed enough to pay for the rent for her new apartment, and it came with really good benefits. That was really the only reason she actually kept the job.

Wendy looked up suddenly in alarm when her desk phone began to ring. She picked up the handset and held it up against the side of her head, her other hand fidgeting with the top end of her pen. "Hi, this is Wendy Beamish," she answered in a mock cheery voice, "How can I help you?"

" _Wendy?"_ a familiar voice asked, _"It's Alec."_

"Oh, hey, Alec. What is this? Another work distraction call?"

" _No, no. I'm not even at work right now. I'm at the hospital."_

Her eyes widened for a brief moment in paint. "You're at the hospital?! What happened?"

" _I'm not the one being treated. It's Leslie."_

"What? Why?"

" _I don't know. I got a call at work saying the Leslie was here, and they called me cause I was her emergency contact. I talked to the nurse at the front desk and she said that Les' got appendicitis."_

"When did she get emitted?" Wendy asked in a concerned tone.

" _Not too long ago, I think,"_ Alec answered, _"But the nurse said she's still in surgery. I don't really know how long she's been in, though. I'm scared outta my mind, Wen'."_

"I'm coming to the ER now. I'll get Kirby, Jules and Kevin on my way over." She then hung up the phone. She quickly grabbed her coat and bug, left the building, and ran to her car.

-/-/-

Jules stood at the counter of the dress store, going over the sales from the early morning. She had taken half off the day off, since she'd gotten there so late in the day. It was just easier to track her pay that way, she'd decided. Her coworkers and boss had no problem with it, so for that reason, her boss said that her pay for the day would not be reduced or cut for the day. After that, she was thankful that'd she had chosen to get a job at a local store rather than at some kind of chain store.

Jules looked up when the bell connected to the front door rang suddenly. When she looked up, she saw a frazzled Wendy talking to her boss and her manager. A moment later, her friend came running over to her at the front desk of the building. "Jules, you need to come with me right now," Wendy announced, "Your boss is cool with it, so let's go."

Jules nodded and followed hesitantly. "What's wrong? Where's the fire?" she asked in a confused tone of voice.

"Leslie's in the ER. She's got appendicitis and is in surgery as we speak. We need to go and get Kirby and Kevin, too, then meet Alec in the ER waiting room."

Jules nodded and quickly got in to the car before Wendy bolted the car in the direction of where their other two friends were.

-/-/-

"Kevin?" Ada said as she re-entered the office doorway, "There's two girls her to see you. They say it's urgent."

Kevin nodded and his girlfriend stepped from the doorway, and in walked his two friends, Jules and Wendy. The two looked like they were in a complete frenzy, and he mentally questioned why they looked so out of sorts. "Hey," Kevin greeted a bit oddly, "What're you two doing here?"

"You need to come with us," Jules said flatly, "We're going to the hospital. Right now."

He gave a confused look. "Why?"

"Leslie's there," Wendy answered worriedly, "She's in the ER with appendicitis. The two of us are meeting Alec at the ER, and we're gonna get Kirby on the way there."

Kevin felt a bit awkward at their explanation. Was he nervous about her condition? Of course he was- but things were still awkward and full of tension at times when the three were together. It was sometimes as if things were forced between them, and it was overbearingly uncomfortable. The three would try to act like things were the way they had been a little over a month ago, but no matter how hard they'd try, things would never be completely be the same for the three… unfortunately.

"Coming or not?" Jules asked their friend.

"Uh, yeah," Kevin answered hesitantly, "Yeah, I'm coming."

"Do you want me to come, too?" Ada asked her boyfriend gently.

Kevin looked at the two girls questioningly. When they nodded in approval, he looked back at her. "Yeah."

She nodded, then the four left the office building, then drove to the law office building.

-/-/-

Kirby and John sat together at a table in the storefront, going over Elizabeth and Emily's lawsuit case. They had a pretty good case, so they were optimistic that they'd win the case. If anything, they'd at least get some kind of payment from the man they were suing, since the case involved the injury and the medical treatment of a child, and the payment for hospital bills also for the mother, and any repairs that were done to the car.

The two men looked up suddenly when the front door swung open. The two men both gave questioning looks when four people who looked to be in their early twenties, three girls and one guy. John gave a confused and questioning look at his three friends their guest.

"Kirby, you need to come with us to the hospital," Jules stated, "Right now."

"Why?" Kirby asked in a confused tone.

John gave a weird look. "You know them, Keger?" he asked.

Kirby nodded. "Yeah, they're my friends. Why do we need to go to the hospital?"

"Leslie's at the ER," Wendy answered, "We're all meeting Alec there now."

"Go ahead, Keger," John said before his apprentice even had to ask, "I can finish this up."

Kirby nodded before quickly getting up from the table. He grabbed his belongings, quickly thanked his boss, then followed the other four outside to the car, then they all drove in the direction off in the direction of the hospital.

 **First, I want to apologize for skipping the two week update this month, but updates should continue every two weeks like usual at this point. Let me explain in simple statements what has been going on in my life lately, both good and bad, that will hopefully give insight to certain things as reason for my absence (things may be out of order, but you'll get the gist of it):**

 **Writers block. Apartment problems. Housing problems. Family issues. Thankful about job layoffs. Finding Dory. Independence Day (the first film). Independence Day: Resurgence. The Fourth of July. VBS church planning. Rewriting of my own story. Family visits. Birthdays. Wedding anniversaries. Barbecues. College searching. Job hunting. Wayward Pines. Short stories. Reading. Go Set a Watchman. The Godfather (book, not film). Gift searching. Personal issues. Skit practicing. Goodbye lunches. Apartment hunting. Future planning. Family visiting.**

 **I think that's all, in simple statements without getting into details.**

 **Anyway, like I said, updates should be every other week as usual, unless something happens.**

 **Ok, that's it. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, happy late Fourth of July, and peace from all the hippies of the world.**


	23. Call Me

Leslie's eyes opened slowly and gently, only to cringe as a bright light nearly blinded her. She opened her eyes again slightly as she placed her hand next to her eyes as they began to adjust to the bright light. When her tired eyes finally adjusted, she realized that the bright light was only a ceiling light. She didn't quite know where she was that there was such a bright light on such an odd looking ceiling in a room that smelled like the cliché soap that was often found in a doctor's office, and mixed with the scent of bland, old furniture.

Leslie tried to sit up- in which she'd figured out was a bed- but stopped when she felt an overbearing sensation of soreness in her lower right side. She clutched it gently as she fell back against a compilation of pillows, letting out a heavy breath. She looked around the room, and after a quick inspection of the room, she realized that she was in a hospital bed- an uncomfortable one, that- in a bland hospital room. She glanced out the window of the door of the room, and saw nurses and doctors and visitors walking through the halls. She looked around the room for one of those buttons to contact a nurse, and pressed it when she did, trying to call a nurse to her room.

A minute or two later, a woman in a nurse's uniform walked into the room and to the edge of the bed. Leslie gave a weary look of confusion at the nurse, who looked way too perky and cheery for her personal liking at the moment.

"Miss Hunter, you're awake," the nurse smiled, "How're you feeling?"

"What happened?" Leslie asked in an unintentional tired and weak voice.

"You just got out of surgery three hours ago."

"Why was I in surgery?"

"You don't remember anything?"

Leslie shook her head slowly. "Not really," she answered in a soft tone.

The nurse walked over and checked all the medical machines. "You called for an ambulance, claiming that you lower right side was in excruciating pain," she began, "They picked you up, brought you here, and had some x-ray's done. We found that you had appendicitis, so we took you to the OR, and had to surgically remove your appendix. It's not a serious operation, tons of people get appendicitis, so you don't have to be worried."

Leslie thought for a moment, remembering all that had happened. She remembered taking five different pregnancy tests earlier that morning, and all the tests coming out negative. She then remembered sitting in the apartment, waiting for the pain in her lower right torso to subside. She then remembered the pain growing and growing until she could no longer bear it, then calling nine-one-one. She then remembered being in an ambulance, answering multiple questions from paramedics. Then the next thing she knew, she woke up with an aching pain in her side, lying in a hospital bed.

"So I've been out for three hours?" Leslie asked in a weak voice.

The nurse nodded and stepped away from the machines. "That is correct," she answered, "By the way, there's a young man who came to the waiting room looking for you."

"What was his name?"

"Alec Newbary, I believe."

Leslie perked up a bit. "Is he still out there?"

"You, would you like for me to go out and get him for you?"

"That'd be great."

The nurse nodded. "I'll go get him," she said, then left the room.

-/-/-

" _Have you guys heard anything yet?"_ Billy asked from the other end of the phone.

Wendy shrugged to herself. "Not really," she answered, "We've been here for about two and a half hours and we don't know anything yet."

While the group all waited, Wendy decided that she'd call Billy in New York City. She thought she should let him know, since they were all his friends, too. She was pretty much his walking newsletter for their daily life in Washington D. C., and he was hers for life in New York City. She called him every day, or vice-versa, but she'd made sure to call him on the payphone to let him know what was going on… plus it was a slight distraction from her persistent nervousness.

" _Wait, so what exactly is wrong with Leslie?"_ Billy asked.

"Alec told us it was appendicitis," Wendy answered.

" _How's Alec doing?"_

"He's scared, of course. He's the one who called me, and I called everyone else."

" _Is it weird with both Kevin and Alec there?"_

Wendy thought for a moment. "I don't think so," she answered in a hushed tone, "Kevin's got some girl with him, though. She's nice, and she's pretty."

" _What, are they dating?"_ Billy asked in a confused tone of voice.

"I think so. They're all talking right now, so I'll just join them. Maybe I can find out. Plus, maybe they've heard something about how Leslie's doing."

" _Alright, I'll let you go. Make sure to call me later to let me know what's going on."_

"I will," Billy assured, "Bye, Billy."

" _Bye, Wen'. I love you."_

Wendy smiled to herself. "I love you, too," she said, then hung up the phone.

Wendy walked away from the payphone and began toward where her group of friends sat talking. She noticed that Alec was no longer present in the group. She chose the seat on the edge of the chairs next to Jules, who sat next to Kirby, who sat across from Kevin. She wondered about the girl who had asked if she should join him. From all she'd said, she seemed like a nice girl, but it was kind of hard to tell since she seemed a bit shy and reserved.

The girl with long, dirty blonde hair who'd accompanied Kevin. Her hair was very nice, and obviously a natural color, and in a natural state. She had light colored eyes that went perfectly with her hair color and her skin complexion. She wouldn't really speak unless directly spoken to; it wasn't out of being snobbish, but it seemed rather out of nervousness and shyness. She had a slightly nervous look on her face, so that's what the other three believed to be why she was so quiet. If she was shy, it probably didn't help the fact that she was with a group of people she didn't know with the exception of one.

"Any news on Leslie?" Wendy asked as she sat down.

"Nope," Kirby answered in a disappointed tone, "Just that nurse that just came for Alec and brought him through the doors." He motioned to the double doors that led to the back rooms.

"Nurse didn't tell us anything," Jules informed, "Just took him and went."

Wendy nodded. "Well, I called Billy just to let him know what was going on."

"What'd he say?" Kevin asked curiously.

"Just to keep him posted."

The group of five all sat quietly in the hospital waiting room, the only sound coming from the Daytime Drama playing off of the television. There was only one other person waiting in the emergency room waiting room, who was oblivious to the television screens that were set up on platforms on the top wall corners. The group would give weird looks at the nurses at the desk, who watched the screens intently, all with facial expressions of both shock and slight expression.

Ada slightly nudged Wendy's arm, gaining her attention. "I'm sorry," she said quietly, "Do you know where the bathroom is here?"

Wendy nodded. "Yeah, sure," she answered, "Follow me."

The two girls got up and started toward the bathroom. "SO how long have you known Leslie?" she asked curiously, her voice getting slightly louder.

Wendy thought for a moment. "A couple years now. We all met at Georgetown."

"That's really cool how you guys are all so close. I'm guessing you guys have all been through a lot together?"

"Oh yeah. You don't even know the half of it."

 **The drama is slowly beginning to grow in this story, I promise. I have no idea if I'm even close to finishing it soon or not, but I seriously hope so. I might just cut it short, I don't know. I kinda wanna finish all my stories on this site, but I know I can't cause my one Outsiders story won't be done for a while, and my Expendables story is still new and I know it won't end totally soon. I seriously just wanna finish it all right now.**

 **My dad's birthday is this week, as well as my parents wedding anniversary. I bought my dad** _ **Spaceball's**_ **on dvd for his birthday. Then for their anniversary, I wanted to get them both** _ **Serial Mom**_ **, but couldn't find it, so I bought my parents both their own two gifts. I bought my dad his favorite Elton John album:** _ **Madman Across the Water**_ **, and his favorite Frank Zappa album:** _ **One Size Fits All.**_ **I'm so proud of myself for finding those three, cause they were so hard to find, oh my gahd. Then for my mom I bought her season three of the new** _ **Hawaii Five-O**_ **, and a Whitney Houston cd, one of those** _ **the best of**_ **type things. Season three of the new** _ **Hawaii Five-O**_ **has some of the best guest stars, like the ones I always miss on television as reruns at like three in the morning with C. Thomas Howell, Peter Weller, and Dog the Bounty Hunter.**

 **Anyway, I don't know what else to say or talk about, so that's it, I guess. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and peace from all the hippies of the world. =^-^=**


	24. Friend Or Foe

As Wendy explained the lst four and a half years she'd known Kevin, Ada listened intently, asking things every once in a while. The two were talking in a cliché location for those of the female gender to talk- the ladies restroom. After a while, Jules had found them in the bathroom and joined them and their conversation. The three then continued to talk about things each other might like- or even need- to know.

"So you're the Ada that Kevin's been talking about?" Jules asked curiously.

Ada let out a slight chuckle as she shrugged a bit. "I guess so," she answered, "Unless he knows some other girl named Ada."

"We've been waiting so long to meet you," Wendy admitted with a friendly smile.

Ada gave an embarrassed smile. "Same to you guys. But I do wish that it was under better circumstances, to be honest."

Jules nodded. "I respect that. Especially with the history between Kevin and Leslie."

"What history?"

Wendy and Jules tried to act naturally. "They're really close friends," Wendy tried to cover up, "They've both just been through a lot."

Wendy and Jules didn't want to tell Ada about the one night stand between Leslie and Kevin. It wasn't their place or their business to tell her about it. If the event or topic hadn't been brought up yet between the two, they decided that they wouldn't say anything. They felt kinda bad that they had almost brought up the past event, but they didn't know what they might cause if they told her what had happened if she didn't hear it straight for the horse's mouth, so to speak. They were still nervous about what might happen between the two because of what they had _almost_ blurted out.

"I get that," Ada said understandingly.

"Maybe we should get back out there," Jules suggested, "Maybe they heard something about Leslie by now."

-/-/-

"I started to feel it last night, actually," Leslie said in a quiet tone of voice, "But I didn't think it was appendicitis."

"Did you have any idea what it was at any point?" Alec asked gently.

Leslie panicked at his question. She wasn't sure if she should tell him that she had actually thought she was pregnant- considering that it probably wouldn't have been his. Sure, even if she was pregnant, there was a very slight possibility that the baby would've been Alec's- but based off of her more recent sexual history, there was more of a possibility of the baby being Kevin's- if she had been pregnant. For the reason that she was engaged to Alec, she was thankful that she wasn't pregnant this time.

"I had a vague idea," Leslie admitted softly.

"What was it?" Alec asked curiously.

She bit down on her bottom lip out of nervousness. "I thought that I… that I was pregnant…"

His eyes widened. "Pregnant?"

"Yeah. I'm not, I took a test- a few tests, actually. But even if was, I don't think it had to do with you…"

"You mean, it would've been-"

"I don't know. Maybe."

Alec stood up from his seat, running his hands over his face. He let out a heavy sigh as he walked over to the other side of the room. Leslie watched him nervously as he stood with his back towards her as he looked out the window of the room. She could feel her heart begin to beat a little faster with every moment that passed, her nervousness for what he might say or do in response to her answer. She sat motionless, both out of weariness from her medical treatment and out of nervous anticipation.

"I…" Alec stuttered and slightly turned to face her. When their eyes met, he looked away. "I need some air," he stated then abruptly left the room.

Leslie shut her eyes, letting tears escape from the corners of her eyes.

-/-/-

Kirby, Jules, Wendy, Kevin and Ada all watched as Alec stormed out from the double doors, through the waiting room, and out the front entrance of the emergency room. The five all exchanged odd and confused looks between each other, mentally questioning what had just happened. "I'll go see what happened," Kirby announced, got up from his seat, then walked out the building after his angered friend. The rest all nodded, then slumped back in their seats.

"Kevin?" Ada asked quietly, "Can I talk to you outside for a second?"

"Yeah, sure," Kevin answered with a nod, then the two got up and walked outside.

Wendy and Jules exchanged worried glances. "This won't be good," Wendy said worriedly. Jules nodded in agreement, then the two rushed to the door as well.

-/-/-

Alec let a cigarette, then inhaled, taking "a drag" on it. When he took the cigarette out from his mouth, he leaned his head back against the brick wall of the building and shut his eyes in attempt to calm himself down. He then reopened his eyes and looked down at the ground, letting out another heavy sigh as she did so.

It wasn't the fact that Leslie had thought she was pregnant that bothered Alec. The part that bothered him was that, even if she was pregnant- which she wasn't- it most likely wouldn't have been his. He thought that he'd moved past that night after the party when he'd found out about that little "one night stand"- but now he was thinking that maybe he hadn't quite moved on. It wasn't like he could go back in time and change what had happened that night.

But at the present time, he sure wish that he had a DeLorean and a Flux Capacitor to go along with it.

Alec flicked the nearly untouched cigarette onto the ground, stomping it out with his shoe. He was about to turn to go back inside the hospital, Kirby had just walked up to him. Not a moment later, Kevin and the girl who'd come with him walked out as well. He felt himself begin to grow angry as Kirby tried to talk to him. He clenched his fists at his side as he walked over to Kevin, Kirby walking not far behind him- confused by his friend at the present time. Alec walked right up to Kevin, careful to keep his distance from the girl.

When Kevin turned around to face him, Alec lifted his fist and let it connect with his cheek and jaw. Kevin fell to the ground, instantaneously lifting his hand to cradle his injured jaw. He looked up at Alec with confused and slightly frightened eyes. The girl then rushed to duck down by Kevin, worry written all over the features of her face and gentle eyes. She looked up at Alec, then back at her boyfriend.

"Alec, what the hell was that?" Kevin questioned right as Jules and Wendy arrived outside.

Alec stood over him, an angry look on his face and in his eyes. "That's what you get for screwing around with her," he growled.

Kevin gave a confused look. "What're you even talking about?"

"You know!" Alec then stormed away in another direction, leaving the group in front of the emergency room building of the hospital.

The five all exchanged odd looks. "C'mon," Ada said gently to her boyfriend as she helped him up from the ground, "You should get your jaw checked out. Make sure you're alright."

"What the hell just happened here?" Kirby questioned as the two walked past him.

"We only have a brief idea," Wendy answered.

"Which is?"

"Cause of what happened after the party," Jules answered simply and a bit guilty.

 **I started my senior year (last year) of high school this past Monday. I'm graduating in May 2017 (I do online school, and the University I do it through graduates in May, and they have one whole bit ceremony for all the graduates of that year. It's pretty cool. My mom watched the graduation online when she graduated a few years back through the online academy. For the high school students who did school online, they sit altogether in a different color than the college graduates, so they're clearly seen in the huge crowd. All the college graduates have black gowns and hats on, then you just see a little sea of blue- that's the high school graduating class. It's seriously cool. We already got hotel rooms for graduation since it's not in New Jersey, but it Virginia- that hotel is now all booked up, but me and my mom are good, we got our rooms. My distant cousin (who we're oddly close with) from my dad's side and her husband are planning on coming to see me graduate. I'm excited.**

 **Anyway, I'm rambling, I'm sorry.**

 **Just so you know, since I'm now in school, I might make updates for this story and my others all once a month rather than twice a month. I have a creative writing class, so I'll have those writings, plus a paper for earth science, I believe. It'll be less rushed on me. I know it seems a bit selfish but in a way it's not, cause when my writing is rushed, my writing sucks and I don't want you guys all have to suffer just cause I'm stressed out. So in two weeks, there will be no update. In four weeks from now, there will be. Another four weeks, another update. Again, I apologize for this change, but I just don't want to rush things if I don't have to cause I'll already be stressed enough with this being my senior year, and applying for colleges and retaking the SAT and studying to get my drivers permit and license. Plus I'm looking for a job, so yeah.**

 **Anyway. Hope you enjoyed the chapter- see you in four weeks. Peace from all the hippies of the world.**


	25. Sooner Or Later

"Does your jaw hurt a lot?" Ada asked in a concerned voice.

"Kinda," Kevin answered as best as he could, cradling just jaw and left cheek.

Her eyes showed concern. "It looked like he really hit you hard."

"He did, take my word for it."

Kevin tried to ease the pain in his jaw and lower left side of his face. He held the ice pack one of the nurses had given to him against his face as he waited for a doctor to enter the temporary room that he was in at the ER. One of the nurses had seen him get punched and met him and Ada as they reentered the hospital. He'd been brought to one of the rooms, was given an ice pack, and was told to wait a little while for a doctor to arrive to the room. The entire time, he didn't fully admit to the excruciating pain running through his jaw.

Ada had grown nervous after witnessing her boyfriend getting punched. She knew that the two had been sitting as friends in the waiting room just a few minutes before- so after seeing what had happened, she was utterly confused. She didn't really understand why Alec had punched and knocked down her boyfriend, and she had no idea what had brought the action on. _And what did he mean when he said, "This is what you get for screwing around with her!"?_ she asked herself curiously and worriedly.

"What was Alec talking about after he punched you?" Ada asked a bit nervously.

Kevin moved his jaw around. "I don't know," he answered with an unsure shrug.

That was a lie. Kevin knew exactly what he'd been talking about. He knew that it was about that one night after the party at the Chinese gangster's house. The two had made up,, but there'd always be that night hanging right above their heads in their friendship. It was a night full of shame, passion, regret, hatred, anger, and self-loathing. But what did that night have anything to do with the present time? Why had Alec all of a sudden brought it up? And why was there an angry and physical reaction and retaliation to the unchangeable event?

"Well he's mad about something," Ada commented, "Should someone go check on Leslie?"

"Jules is on it," Wendy said, entering the doorway, "Jules went to go see Leslie, and Kirbby went after Alec- and I'm here. How's your jaw?"

"Painful, but that's what life mostly is," Kevin answered with a heavy sigh full of annoyance.

Ada started for the door. "I'll go see where the doctor is."

Once Ada left the room, Wendy spoke in a hushed tone. "You know why Alec punched you, right?"

Kevin shrugged a bit. "I only have a guess, but I don't think I know the whole story, believe it or not."

Wendy explained what had happened and what had caused everything, based off of what she knew from Jules and Leslie. She explained all of what she knew to Kevin, trying to clear everything up for him. It was all very complicated, and very inducing of the feeling of guilt over all that had happened. It all was clear now, after everything had been explained- and it was clear what the problem was.

"Well this is bad," Kevin announced with another heavy sigh.

-/-/-

"He's just overwhelmed," Jules said in a gentle tone, attempting to comfort her friend and roommate, "He just needs to think."

While Wendy went to go and talk to Kevin, and while Kirby had gone off in search of Alec, Jules had gone back to the hospital room that Leslie was in. They had all gone after and to look after one of the three in the very complicated and aggressive love triangle. What made the whole thing worse was the fact that the three had all been good friends at one point in the past- but that seemed like a hundred years ago at this point. Sure they had- sort of- made up after what had happened, but so what? All the relationships between the three had been ruined and altered for the rest of their lives, and their relationships would never be the same again.

"He's not thinking about what happened," Leslie insisted, "He's trying to figure out of he can seel this engagement ring back to the jewelry store."

"Stop that," Jules reprimanded, "He's not doing that, Les', he loves you."

Leslie scoffed. "Does he?"

"Yes! If he didn't love you, he wouldn't be so freaked out about this! Come on, you know he is, Leslie. This is how he shows concern."

"You told me that he punched Kevin."

"Yeah he did. But he did that only because he gets jealous."

"You're not making any sense, Jules," Leslie snapped, "If Alec wasn't so stubborn, I could just talk to him."

"I don't think that's such a great idea just yet," Jules said honestly, "The both of you really should cool off a bit first."

Leslie was silent for a moment. "Where's Kirby and Wendy?"

"Wendy went to check on Kevin, and Kirby went to go and find Alec. You should get some rest. You get to go home tomorrow."

-/-/-

Kirby walked through the halls of the hospital alone, in search of his angered friend. He searched every men's restroom, every waiting room, every empty hallway, and anywhere else that patients and visitors were allowed to be in the hospital. He'd been looking for around twenty minutes now and had no luck in finding his friend. It was like he'd just vanished, which was weird since he'd seen him rush back into the hospital after hitting their other friend.

After another ten minutes of searching, Kirby headed toward the hospital cafeteria. When he got there, he bought himself a cup of coffee and stood against the wall instead of finding a seat. He held up the cup to take a drink, but stopped when he saw a familiar figure outside the window. He got up off of the wall then headed toward the door, in silent pursuit of the familiar sitting figure. He walked out the doors of the hospital cafeteria and to the figure where he sat.

"You ok, Alec?" Kirby asked in a soft voice as not to startle his friend.

Alec kept his gaze fixed on the ground. "Sure," he sighed, "Just peachy, thank you for asking." His voice dripped with sarcasm.

Kirby was silent for a moment. "Kevin went to go and get his jaw checked out."

"Ok."

"Leslie's really upset, you know."

Alec didn't say anything for another minute. He sat quietly, keeping his gaze locked on the pavement. "Yeah," he finally spoke calmly, "I believe that."

"You gonna go up and talk to her?" Kirby asked, "And I don't mean arguing or anything, I mean like, really talking."

"In a little while, yeah."

It pained Kirby to see that it was like the two were right back where they'd started after that night. He thought that the two were made for each other, just like the rest thought- but the two were both way too stubborn for the good of their relationship. If they didn't talk like the civil adults that they were, it'd lead to the definite fall of their relationship. He didn't like thinking that, but that was how he felt about the whole thing.

"It's all in the past," Kirby said, "Everybody makes mistakes."

"Sometimes it seems like only me and Leslie do that," Alec mumbled.

Before Kirby could say anything else in response, Alex had already gotten up from where he was sitting and was headed back into the hospital.

 **I apologize for the four week long wait for an update, rather than two week. But I've had a lot of schoolwork these last few weeks, since I just started my senior year. The job I was going to get also feel through, and I didn't start- in fact, I quit my first week, but if you were me and knew all the details, you'd understand why. And it wasn't like I decided on a whim to quit, I got opinions from people who know me well and are very important to me.**

 **Anyway, I don't know if I will update in two weeks or four weeks again. My life is kinda hectic at the moment- good hectic- so I'm a bit overwhelmed at the present time. I'm also trying to finish a few stories and start a new one, and try to write something on Episode Interactive (don't judge me) and try to finish a book I'd been writing to get published, plus I volunteered to make story covers for a website that is for writers. So yeah. Not to mention I'll be applying to colleges soon- plus my 17** **th** **birthday is this month (September) so yeah.**

 **Most likely it'll be in another four weeks.**

 **Also, before I finish- Rest in Peace, Gene Wilder. My two favorite roles of yours were as Willy Wonka in the amazing "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and as Dr Frankenstein in the hilarious "Young Frankenstein". You were a comic genius, a genius of your trade, and a true legend. Your death is grieved by people of all ages and generations, creating some of the best films in comic and film history. Thank you for all you've done throughout the years, and thank you for all the laughs. June 11, 1933 to August 29, 2016.**

 **Anyway, hope you liked the chapter, and peace from all the hippies of the world. =^-^=**


	26. Part-Time Lover

Kirby and Alec walked through the hospital halls back to Leslie's room. Kirby had convinced back and see his girlfriend, now that he was calm and had collected off after all that had happened. They had to talk, so they figured- get it done and over with. As they walked, he hoped they wouldn't run into their other male friend- not yet anyway- as not to create tension or a problem in the middle of the hospital.

Alec had thought over his previous conversation with Leslie as he walked. He'd overreacted- at least he believed that he did- after he'd calmed down and analyzed their conversation rationally. Sure, it was definitely a reason to get worked up over- the possibility of a fiancé being pregnant with someone else's baby- but in their case, you had to think about it all. They had a weird situation on their hands, and everybody was at fault for it. They all had done things that they regretted that night, so they all felt at fault. But there was nothing they could do about it but try to move on.

But that was seeming much more easily said than done as time went on.

"You alright now?" Kirby asked his friend unsurely.

Alec looked at his friend and nodded. "Yeah," he answered quietly, "You remember what room number it was?"

"Yeah, I remember. We're almost there."

-/-/-

Leslie sat in her hospital bed, arms crossed over her chest, staring out the hospital room window. She didn't say anything, just sat and stared. From where she sat and how the window was placed, she couldn't see anything but the tops of the buildings that were in the surrounding area. The people running all over the city were not visible, giving the city a look of calmness and of bliss. _How opposite from my life right now_ , she thought sadly.

Both Leslie and Jules looked up in alarm when they heard the hospital room door slowly creak open. When they looked up, they were both shocked to see Kirby and Alec walking into the room. The arguing couple both looked at each other, expressionless and no emotion written on either of their faces. Their two friends also shared glances as the air in the room grew thick with tension.

"We'll let you two talk alone," Kirby announced a bit awkwardly, then rushed out of the room with Jules, closing the door behind them to give privacy.

The couple was both silent for a minute, mentally trying to figure out who should be the first to say something. _Anything_.

"I'm sorry," Alec said first, interrupting the tension filled silence.

Leslie looked up, a confused look on her face. "Why're _you_ sorry?" she asked.

"I shouldn't have reacted the way I did before. I should've acted like an adult about the whole situation."

"No, no, you reacted fine-"

"No, I didn't, ok? I just freaked out cause… I guess I'm just sensitive about… well, you know what."

Leslie nodded. "I can respect that. But… what do we do about it?"

Alec shrugged and sat in the seat at the head of her bed. "I don't know," he answered honestly with a sigh, "I _do_ know that we obviously can't ignore what happened."

"That's for sure," Leslie agreed.

Alec leaned forward until he could reach the surface of the bed. He leaned his arms on the sheets, flat and folded, ten leaned his chin on top of his hands. Leslie used her right to gently stroke his hair a few times, then took his hands together with her own left hand. He grasped her hand and held it up, looking at the engagement ring that rested around the bottom end of her ring finger. He gently stroked her hand a few times with his thumb, then looked up at her. The two stayed like this for a minute or so, enjoying the now comfortable silence that had taken over the room.

"Hey, Alec," Leslie said, breaking the silence, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Alec answered simply.

"Do you think we'll be alright?"

He shrugged. "What married couple is?"

-/-/-

Kevin was eventually allowed to leave the emergency room. He had to have x-rays done on his jaw and head, which revealed that the punch he'd received didn't break or fracture any bones. His face and jaw would be sore for the next week to two weeks, but that was normal. The pain and any discomfort would gradually decrease until it was completely gone, and he'd have to hold an ice pack over the area for twenty minutes two times a day, just to help the process, until there was no pain at all.

"You'll be feeling that in the morning," Ada commented lightly and a bit teasingly.

Kevin let out a slight chuckle. "Yeah," he agreed, "Not particularly a good thing, but yeah."

'Why did… Alec?... why did Alec punch you, anyway? I thought you two were friends?"

"We are… but something kinda happened a little after Halloween that kinda changed things."

"What happened?"

Kevin mentally cringed at her question. He had been hoping that she wouldn't prod and that she wouldn't ask about what had happened. He didn't really want to say what had happened, not at the present time, at least, while his jaw and left side of his face were sore. Did he know he'd have to tell her eventually about that night? Sure he did- but he didn't think that it would be after going out for only a little over than a month; he'd thought that once they were in a more comfortable place in their relationship that was when he'd tell her.

"You're probably not gonna like it if I tell you," Kevin said honestly.

Ada grew nervous at his words. "I will?" she asked hesitantly.

"Probably."

She took a deep breath. "Ok… you'd probably have to tell me in the future, anyway, right?"

"I guess so."

"Ok, then just go ahead and say it. And whatever it is, I'll try to be as understanding as possible."

Kevin nodded. "Ok," he started and took a deep breath, "Alec punched me cause of something that happened between me and Leslie at the end of October. This was before I met you. Alec had broken up with Leslie at this party that Kirby had, and she was really upset. They were living together at the time, but since they had broken up, she didn't go back thee that night, obviously. She asked to spend the night at my apartment and I said yeah. The two of us were talking together late that night, and we were getting a bit drunk and we…"

Ada's eyes grew a bit wider. "You two slept together," she guess to finish his sentence.

He let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah. Later on, Alec came by cause he had a key and wanted to talk to me. He found out about what happened. We've all kinda moved past it, but-"

"Things'll never be the same, right?"

Kevin gave a confused and questioning look. "How'd you know that?" he asked.

Ada sighed. "I've had two other boyfriends before you, one of them cheated on me with my best friend. I forgave both her and him- I did break up with him, though- but things were never the same between any of us. Especially with me and my best friend. There are times when the two of us can't be in the same together cause of that… and it happened years ago," she explained.

"So you understand?"

"Yeah, I do. I mean, I'm not happy that you two slept together, but that was before you met me, so that makes it better."

"If it makes you feel any better, both me and Leslie regret it."

"It does a little bit," she admitted with a small smile, "But thank you for being honest with me."

"Thank you for understsanding."

 **I'm lucky about the fact that I was actually able to update this. I'm in the process of moving, which is making me behind in some school work, also looking for a job, and studying for my driving test, as well as applying for colleges in the very near future. Not to mention that I've finished writing a story here on fanfiction. Net, but am starting another by the end of December. So yeah. Very stressful.**

 **But on the bright side, where we're moving is much better than where we were, and now I'm seventeen instead of sixteen since my birthday passed this month.**

 **Anyway, I'll probably update in another four weeks. I apologize. If I update in two weeks, it'll be a miracle. Peace from all the hippies of the world.**


	27. Almost Paradise

A week later, Leslie was released from the hospital. She was told to stay home for a week to rest before returning to work. She was healing quite nicely, and she wasn't too sore, which was a good thing- considering she'd had emergency surgery to get her appendix removed.

Leslie had gone back to the shared apartment she lived in. She wasn't allowerd to move around too much or do a lot of heavy work- both by her doctor and all of her friends. She had a slight problem with this, since it was always hard for her to just sit and do nothing. But at the present moment, she ahd no other choice. Alec had even decided to stay with her for company, and to make sure she was actually resting, rather than going around doing some kind of work.

"I hate this," Leslie complained.

Alec looked over at her. "What?" he asked.

"Just sitting here and doing nothing."

"The doctor made you."

"I'm going stir crazy, I swear."

Alec gave an amused smirk. "You just got two more days till you can go back to work," he reminded.

"I know," Leslie confirmed, "It's just that I'm helping with a lawsuit case that, apparently Kirby is working on as well."

"What's it about?"

"Car accident. That girl Emily he told us about and her daughter Elizabeth."

-/-/-

Kirby and Emily had continued to see each other as time went on. They would meet up a few times during the week for lunch whenever they wanted to talk without having to worry about Emily. Then, whenever the little girl wanted to see him- she'd grown very fond of him- they'd all go out on Saturdays or in the evening during the week. And along with the little girl growing found of him, he and the little girl's mother grew more and more fond of each other.

Kriby and Emily felt extremely comfortable with and around each other. They both felt that they could talk about everything and anything with each other. Every time they were together, it seemed as if they both said a secret about themselves, due to this feeling of comfort and trust. It was a nice feeling to have that much trust in a romantic partner, especially to her.

Ever since she was nineteen years old, Emily didn't have much trust or faith in men- at least not enough for a romantic relationship. But if you were in her shoes and had gone through what she had, it'd be completely understandable why. But because of what she had gone through, she was always a bit hesitant to being alone with a man- that was part of the reason she was ok with the fact that Elizabeth had to go on their first day with them. For some reason, she felt more sure and secure when she had her daughter with her.

"So your brother things the lawsuit case is almost over," Kirby informed, "He's optimistic."

"He always has been," Emily commented with a light chuckle, "Are you?"

"You mean about the case?"

"Yeah."

"I am too, honestly."

Emily gave him a small smile then looked down at the sidewalk again. "That's very encouraging," she smiled, "Thank you."

Kirby looked at her for another moment before Emily stopped and faced him, a serious look on her face. "Can I tell you something serious that happened and have you not laugh at me or tell anyone else about it?"

Kirby grew a bit concerned. "You can trust me."

"Ok," Emily said, taking a deep breath, "Look, I'm really going to trust you. _Please_ don't make me regret it."

Kirby nodded. "I won't," he said surely, "I promise."

She took another heavy breath as she began her explanation. "I've only told this to John and my parents. When I was nineteen years old, I had already finished my first year of college. To celebrate our first year and that we actually managed to survive and finish the year, me and a few friends of mine all went to a party we were invited to. So we went and it was all going good. My boyfriend at the time was there too, and we hadn't slept together yet. I was a virgin and wanted to wait till I got married. Anyway, we're at the party and we're all having a good time. We were all just starting to get tipsy, so we were all loosened up. My boyfriend and I moved to one of the bathrooms and he started to kinda… feel me up. I told him to stop, but he wouldn't. He locked the door, started to kiss me really rough and took off my clothes… and he raped me." Her voice grew quiet toward the end.

Kirby's face fell. "Oh hell…"

"Yeah. He broke up with me right then and there after, then left me alone in the bathroom. I got dressed, then left the party without saying a word to anybody. I packed up all my stuff that night, then took a train a week earlier to go home. When I got home, I told my parents and brother what happened. They all comforted me as best as they could, considering the situation. A few weeks later, I found out I was pregnant. I dropped out of college and just didn't register for the next year. Not to mention that Elizabeth was born three months early before her due date. The doctor said it was a miracle that both of us survived and are perfectly healthy."

"Wow," Kirby whistled, "I'm sorry all that happened to you, Emily."

Emily pretty much blew it off. "I am, but I'm not. I mean, I'm upset that Elizabeth was a result of rape, but I don't regret keeping her. She's my baby, my little girl. I love her and I'd risk my life for her."

Kirby was happy to hear Emily's answer about her daughter. While he'd never known anyone else who'd been raped- at least not that he knew of- he still knew how he felt about it. He knew it was a terrible thing and that no one deserved for it to happen to them. Also that, whoever raped another individual was just as despicable as someone who would abuse an animal- and that it was a truly sick thing to do to another human being. He knew that when it happened to someone, it could scar them forever- so knowing the Emily had seemed to move past it and completely loved and adored her daughter made him happy that she hadn't let it get the best of her.

"Good," Kirby smiled genuinely.

Emily's cheeks turned red as she smiled weakly. "You're not upset about it?" she asked nervously.

"Other than the fact that it actually happened, no. Why should I be? It wasn't your fault. You didn't make it happen."

-/-/-

Scott and Jules left the restaurant they'd gotten lunch together at and walked out onto the sidewalk. She smiled in thanks as he opened the passenger's door of his car for her, closed it, and then got into the driver's seat. He started the car and drove off in the direction of where she worked. The two talked and laughed together in the car as they drove through the streets.

Scott and Jules had continued to grow closer and closer to each other in the romantic relationship. They continued to go out on regular dates with each other- and she began to wear the color red around him. They spent a lot of time together, both on a real date or just hanging out. He'd met her friends, and she's met his- and both groups approved of the relationship. It was great, and they both were completely infatuated with each other.

"Jules," Scott began as he pulled up in front of the dress shop.

Jules turned and looked over at him. "Sure," she nodded, "What's up?"

Even though the two had acted like an official couple, the two hadn't officially become exclusive to each other. While they weren't exclusive to each other, the two still didn't see anyone else romantically. It'd been a few weeks, so Scott felt it was time to at least try and ask Jules if she wanted to be exclusive with one another. He was a bit nervous about asking, but he figured that there was no harm in trying. She could either say eyes or no, and while he knew there was a possibility of her saying no to him, there was still a possibility of her saying yes.

"I was wondering if maybe," Scott began a bit nervously.

"Yeah?" Jules asked out of anticipation.

"If maybe you wanted to be exclusive to each other?"

"You mean like, be boyfriend and girlfriend?"

"Yeah."

She thought it over for less than a second, then smiled. "I'd love to."

Both Scott and Jules smiled before leaning toward other to share a kiss.

-/-/-

"So you're' staying in D. C for Christmas to be with your family?" Billy tried to confirm.

" _Yeah,"_ Wendy confirmed, _"It's a big deal with them all to be together for it."_

"I can respect that."

" _Are you gonna come down for a visit for Christmas or New Years?"_ Her voice was hopeful.

He tried to sound convincing. "I don't know, Wen'. I'll try to, but I don't know if I definitely can."

" _Alright,"_ Wendy said a bit disappointedly, " _I can understand that."_

Billy felt a bit guilty for lying- but he had a good reason for it. He had already made plans to get a round trip ticket to Washington D. C., where he'd arrive the day before Christmas Eve, and leave the day after New Year's. Since he knew she wouldn't be able to leave the city for the holiday, it was guaranteed that he'd be able to surprise her. He'd already made all the plans for it, now all he had to do was go to the train station when the ticket said to, and arrive.

"I'll try, Wen'," Billy tried to console, "I promise that I'll try my best, ok?"

" _Ok,"_ Wendy confirmed with an obvious small smile in her voice, " _I love you."_

"I love you too, Wen'."

-/-/-

It had taken Ada two days to officially come to terms with and be ok with what Kevin had told her happened. While she'd secretly wished that it had never happened in the first place, she knew there was nothing she could do about it. What's done was done. There was nothing to do about it but leave it alone and try to ignore it. While this was not an easy task- especially since she'd been meaning to bring up the possibility of sleeping together in the future- it was one that had to be done, no questions asked.

All in all, she was just thankful that'd he'd told her the whole truth about what happened.

"Are you busy on Christmas?" Ada asked as they walked out from the building.

"Not as far as I know," Kevin answered with a shrug, "Why?"

"My family was hoping… well, I was hoping… that you'd come over for dinner at our house? It'll be just like how it was at Thanksgiving."

"Yeah, sure. I'll come."

 **There's only one more chapter left of this story. I cut it shorter than planned cause of my busy life (yes, believe it or not, I have a life- it's mostly about schoolwork and college applications and trying to get my permit).**

 **I'll try to update the last chapter next week.**

 **Hope you have enjoyed this story, and peace from all the hippies of the world. =^-^=**


	28. Man In Motion

The Christmas season came and went for the group of friends and their significant others. Alec and Leslie moved back into their apartment again once she was given clearance to do heavy lifting from her doctor. Billy came back to Washington D. C. for the entire month of December to be with his friends, and more so, to be with Wendy. Jules and Scott continued to grow closer and more attracted to each other as they continued to date- and she began to wear more red around him. Kirby and Emily continued to go out together and became boyfriend and girlfriend- not to mention that they won her case, and Elizabeth grew more attached to Kirby and vice versa. And Kevin and Ada finally got past everything, continued on with their relationship, and professed their love for each other on New Year's that same year.

Did everyone's relationship would out perfect for the rest of their lives? Of course not- but what relationship is perfect? There's no such thing as perfect in anything. But then again, who wants perfection, anyway, being imperfect is so much more fun?

-/-/-

Alec and Leslie Newbary, married in the year 1986. Alexa Leah Newbary, born 1988. Lewis Adam Newbary, born 1992.

Billy and Wendy Hixx, married in the year 1987. Melody Anna Hixx, born 1984, adopted by Wendy. Harmony Gwenyvere Hixx, born 1989. Dorian William Hixx, born 1991.

Scott and Jules Bailess, married in the year 1990. Robert Thomas Bailess, born 1991. Daisy Rose Bailess, born 1996.

Kirby and Emily Keger, married in the year 1989. Elizabeth Amelia Keger-Parker, born 1981, adopted by Kirby. Steven Daniel Keger-Parker, born 1990. Joseph David Keger, born 1991.

Kevin and Ada Dolenz, married in the year 1987. Peter Aaron Dolenz, born 1988. Priscilla Adaline Dolenz, born 1991. Philip Alexander Dolenz, born 1993.

-/-/-

 _Christmas Eve, 1995, 10 years later._

"Alexa," Leslie called to the other side of the dining room, "Bring the cups over here, please?"

"Sure, Mom," Alexa Newbary- who was the spitting image of her mother- called back in obedience.

"Where's your brother?"

"Lewis is with Dad in the living room finishing the tree decorations."

Leslie gave her daughter a gentle smile. "Why don't you go and help them, sweetheart." The seven year old girl gave an eager smile, nodded happily, then rushed to the living room to help her father and three year old little brother decorate their Christmas tree. Leslie smiled to herself and released a light chuckle as she watched her daughter skip to the next room as she finished setting the table. Once she finished, she left the dining room then went to join Alex and their two children in the living room to help finish decorating the Christmas tree before everyone arrived.

-/-/-

"Melody, stop playing with the hem of your dress," Wendy reprimanded her adopted daughter, but her husband's biological daughter.

"But I don't like dresses," Melody Hixx complained.

"Don't you want to look nice for Christmas?"

"Why can't I wear a nice pair of _pants_?"

Wendy thought quickly. "How about this," she tried, "If you wear the dress today, you can wear your pants on New Year's Eve. How's that sound?"

Melody smiled. "Ok," she agreed happily.

Wendy and Melody walked out to the front hallway where Billy stood with their six year old daughter, Harmony, and their four year old son, Dorian. The three all stood, waiting patiently and playing a bit as the blonde and the ten year old girl walked up to them. Billy looked at the two and smiled. "You two ready to go?" he asked. The two smiled and nodded, and the family of five left the house.

-/-/-

"Jules," Scott called, "Are you ready to go yet? We're gonna be late."

"We won't be late," Jules waved off as she entered the room and straightened her son's clothing. "You ready to go, Robbie?"

The four year old boy smiled and nodded eagerly.

Scott went to grab Jules jacket. "Just make sure to stay warm," he said sternly, "You're four months pregnant, so you can't afford to get sick." Jules rolled her eyes at his warning, but laughed anyway. She knew Scott was right, but she didn't want to appear as anxious as he was at times. She leaned down to her son, helped him with his coat, and then turned to her husband. "Let's go," she said with a smile as she walked out of the house with Scott and Robbie.

"Will Lewis be there, Mommy?" Robbie asked excitedly. When she nodded, he jumped once in excitement to see his best friend.

-/-/-

"Elizabeth Amelia Keger-Parker, if you're not ready to go in the next five minutes, you won't be happy," Kirby warned his adopted- but biological to his wife- daughter.

"Kirby," Emily said in a calm tone, "She's a fourteen year old girl trying to build a self-esteem. She needs time to get ready."

He sighed. "I know. I'm just not used to having a teenager in the house."

"Well you better get used to it, cause we still have four more years of it with her. Not to mention two boys… speaking of Steve and Joey, why don't you go and check on them."

Kirby nodded and left the room. He first walked over to his older son's room and opened the door. When he saw that the five year old boy was dressed and ready to go, he told his son to go and wait by his mother. A moment later, the youngest of the three children ran out after his older brother, dressed and ready to go as well.

"You look beautiful, Lizzie," Emily complimented her daughter as she approached them all.

Elizabeth looked up at her adopted father. "Dad?" she tried hopefully, "Do I look ok?"

Kirby smiled and gently kissed her forehead. "You look absolutely beautiful."

-/-/-

"Peter and Priscilla are dressed and ready to go, right, Kevin?" Ada called from the other room.

"After I finish Priscilla's hair they will be," Kevin called back.

Kevin confusedly gather his four year old daughter's hair gently in his hands and tied the strands back into a ponytail. He pulled it tight a bit to make sure it stayed in place. Just as he finished her hair, Ada walked into the room, carrying the two year old son, Philip, on her hip. She handed the two year old to Kevin and straightened their daughter's outfit, then the same with their seven year old, Peter. After taking one more look over their appearances, the five all headed to the front door and out of the house, all in a hurry to get to their friend's house on time.

-/-/-

Leslie, Alec, Wendy, Billy, Jules, Scott, Emily, Kirby, Ada and Kevin all sat together at one table. At the table at a lower level sat Alexa, Lewis, Harmony, Dorian, Robbie, Steven, Joseph, Peter, Priscilla and Philip, with Elizabeth and Melody closest to the adults, due to them being the oldest of all the children. The adults all laughed and talked together, occasionally checking on all the children to make sure they were all doing alright.

At the end of the night, as they all sat in the living room around the Christmas tree, waiting for midnight, the television playing _A Christmas Story_ for those present. Leslie leaned over to her husband and whispered something to him. Alec nodded, called for attention, and then muted the television, leaving the picture up for the younger children. He stood up with his wife, and everyone looked at them curiously.

"We just want to thank everyone for coming over," Leslie began, "It's been a tradition for years, ever since we were all in college, and it makes me happy that we still do it. We've all been through a lot together, with a whole lot of ups and downs, so I'm really thankful to have you all still in my life after all these years."

"I'd like to propose a toast," Alec said, holding up hi smug, "To friendship, family, and the success of all of our relationships not going up in flames."

Everyone let out a laugh at his words and joined in on his toast, just as midnight hit.

-/-/-

Growin' up, you don't see the writing on the wall  
Passin' by, movin' straight ahead, you knew it all  
But maybe sometime if you feel the pain  
You'll find you're all alone, everything has changed

Play the game, you know you can't quit until it's won  
Soldier on, only you can do what must be done  
You know in some way you're a lot like me  
You're just a prisoner and you're tryin' to break free  
I can see a new horizon underneath the blazin' sky  
I'll be where the eagle's flying higher and higher  
Gonna be your man in motion, all I need is a pair of wheels  
Take me where my future's lyin', St. Elmo's Fire

Burning up, don't know just how far that I can go (just how far I go)  
Soon be home, only just a few miles down the road  
I can make it, I know I can  
You broke the boy in me, but you won't break the man

I can see a new horizon underneath the blazin' sky

I'll be where the eagle's flying higher and higher

Gonna be your man in motion, all I need is a pair of wheels

Take me where my future's lyin', St. Elmo's Fire

I can climb the highest mountain, cross the wildest sea  
I can feel St. Elmo's Fire burnin' in me, burnin' in me

Just once in his life a man has his time, and my time is now, I'm coming alive  
I can hear the music playin', I can see the banners fly  
Feel like you're back again, and hope ridin' high  
Gonna be your man in motion, all I need is a pair of wheels  
Take me where my future's lyin', St. Elmo's Fire

I can see a new horizon underneath the blazin' sky

I'll be where the eagle's flying higher and higher

Gonna be your man in motion, all I need is a pair of wheels

Take me where my future's lyin', St. Elmo's Fire

I can climb the highest mountain, cross the wildest sea  
I can feel St. Elmo's Fire burnin' in me

Burnin', burnin' in me, I can feel it burnin'  
Oooh, burnin' inside of me

 _The End._


End file.
